Monterrey.- A cocktail of drought, dust storms, 180 fires and high temperatures hit Nuevo León since yesterday Wednesday April 6, 2022.
The chaotic day put rescuers and firefighters in check, who worked at forced marches to fight all the fires in the middle of a historic water crisis in Nuevo Leon.
Shortly after 1:00 p.m., a dense plume of smoke rose from the Sierra of Santiago when the fire was rekindled in the area known as La Camotera.
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Along with the fumarole, a dust storm that formed in Escobedo advanced strongly to the Center of Montereydriven gusts of wind over 50 kilometers per hour.
The conditions of the dry environment, with wind and a 38 degree celcius heat were conducive to the formation of fires, many of them in vacant lots full of dry brush.
At 5:00 p.m., State Civil Protection reported that 180 fires had already been registered, whose smoke covered the entire metropolitan area.
“Everything looks polluted“, lamented a passer-by who was trying to take a photo of Cerro de la Silla from the Macroplaza.
The most devastating fires were unleashed in the grasslands of Colonia Moderna and in Colinas de San Jerónimo, both in Monterrey, reported Civil Protection.
Alejandro Zúñiga, commander of the Nuevo León Fire Department, said that they already foresaw that yesterday would be a difficult day, because as of today a moderate cold wave is forecast and this type of phenomenon is preceded by strong winds.
In Santiago, brigade members and volunteers had managed to suffocate 95 percent of the incident until last Tuesday, but the drought and gusts of wind revived it and now control is only 80 percent.
Rescuers and Army personnel evacuated 30 people from the La Camotera and El Tejocote communities, given the risk that the flames would approach their homes.
“It is a reactivation of the fire. The control that was had was lowered, we cannot say that it will start again, but it remains active,” said Mayor David de la Peña.
By 8:00 p.m., the effects of the fires were reflected in the environment and eight of the 14 monitoring stations reported extremely poor air quality, registering high concentrations of PM10 particles.
With this scenario, only the rains can give the City a break, but the forecast is not very flattering.
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Conagua maintains its rain forecasts below the average for April and May.
For April, the estimate is that it rains 32 percent less, with just 26.7 millimeters, compared to the 39.1 millimeters of the historical average for this month.
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