Guatemalan authorities are on alert due to smoke with toxic gases that has spread throughout Guatemala City since Sunday. The air quality is “bad” and harmful to health, which is why the Government suspended classes in schools and universities on Monday and Tuesday. A fire “caused” in the landfill of the Authority for the Sustainable Management of the Lake Amatitlán Basin (AMSA), located on the 22 kilometer route to the Pacific, generated immense columns of smoke that generated visibility problems on nearby roads and that They have already traveled to various parts of the country.
“Whoever caused it cannot imagine the magnitude and impact it causes, mainly in the environmental aspect, but also in the social and financial aspect,” Emma Díaz, director of AMSA, told local media. The National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction (Conred) reported that the fire is 50% controlled and 30% liquidated and recommended that those who have to leave home use a mask to protect themselves from the air. In addition, they recommend keeping doors and windows closed.
The National Institute of Seismology, Volcanology, Meteorology and Hydrology (Insivumeh) explained that the category of air emanated by the fire is “very bad” and that it can be considered harmful to health because it contains ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, methane and monoxide. “As long as the emitting source is not mitigated or controlled, the trend presented by concentrations […] “They could be in the dangerous category,” he said in a Sunday bulletin.
The air emergency forced the Ministry of Education and two more universities to suspend classes in the departments of Guatemala, Sacatepéquez and Escuintla, which are the places surrounding the site of the fire.
On Sunday, another fire alert was also activated in the Quetzal Biotope, a natural reserve located with an area of 1,044 hectares located in Baja Verapaz, a town north of the city and which protects approximately 50 species of trees, 87 of birds and 58 of animal species.
As of Saturday, according to the latest update, Guatemala has recorded 1,358 forest fires so far this year, which have affected some 7,041 hectares, according to data from Conred.
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