BRASÍLIA (AFP) – Brazilian firefighters battled a blaze on Sunday in Brasilia National Park, a nature reserve located just outside the capital.
The blaze was the biggest Brasilia has seen this year, as the city saw 145 days without rain.
Some 1,200 hectares have burned, according to the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, responsible for the administration of Brazil’s national parks. It said the blaze was fought throughout the night in the 30,000 hectare park.
The fire came the same day that Supreme Court Justice Flavio Dino authorised the government to exceed existing spending limits to finance the fight against a “fire pandemic”.
“We cannot deny maximum and effective aid… under the justification of complying with an accounting rule that is not in the Constitution,” said Dino, formerly President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s justice minister.
According to the National Institute for Space Research, 55,517 fires have been recorded in September, up from 46,498 this month last year.
Authorities blame human action for most of the recent fires in the country, often linked to agricultural activity.
