Ecuador burns threatened rich areas, forces president to return home

Affluent neighborhoods in Quito remain under threat from flames and schools have switched to online teaching until the end of the week as firefighters battle forest fires in Ecuador’s capital.

Quito Mayor Pabel Muñoz, of the left-wing Citizen Revolution party, declared a state of emergency for the city of nearly 3 million people to get additional funding to fight more than two dozen fires since Tuesday, almost all of which have been put under control. intentional.

Police have detained a 19-year-old man suspected of being the arsonist after flames forced firefighters and government ministers to abandon a command post near a highway. Two hundred firefighters from seven local governments and 180 soldiers are working to contain the fires, while 1,600 police are keeping the peace.

President Daniel Noboa canceled his planned speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York to return home and manage the crisis. A prolonged drought is also threatening agriculture in Ecuador and has caused nationwide power outages.

“We are facing the worst climate situation in decades, which requires urgent decisions at all levels of government,” Noboa said in a post on X late Tuesday. “Adversity will find us more determined than ever.”

Resurgent flames near the colonial neighborhood of Guapulo – where Noboa rents a mansion – led to the closure of a major highway and tunnel again on Wednesday, blocking direct access between Quito’s north-central center and its eastern suburbs. Nearby houses are evacuated.

Air force helicopters equipped with suspended buckets fly between a low reservoir and the burning forested mountainsides that separate the city center from the valley 400 meters below.

Although no deaths were reported, the flames destroyed several houses in the neighborhoods of Guapulo and Bellavista. Six firefighters and five civilians, including a child, were injured, Expreso newspaper reported. The Ministry of Health reported that 44 people were treated and released for smoke inhalation.

Volunteers rallied to support firefighters, while neighborhood and animal welfare organizations worked to coordinate aid for people, pets and wildlife affected by the fires. Aid agencies and municipal offices have called for water, eye drops, industrial-grade gloves and other aid for firefighters and evacuees.

While the Ministry of the Interior ordered the cancellation of large-scale events, the General Prosecutor’s Office said it would investigate the causes of the fire. Beyond the suspect arrested on Wednesday, other people in recent days have been found to have been set on fire in other areas of the capital’s metropolitan area.

Photo: Smoke from a wildfire above Quito, Ecuador on September 24, 2024. Photo credit: Galo Paguay/AFP/Getty Images