The Venezuelans and Argentines joined Brazilian firefighters, police and soldiers who were tackling the worst blazes at times with little more than water tanks, mops and sticks. One of the hundreds of Brazilian firefighters tackling flames in Roraima State officials warned Saturday that fire had begun to devastate the Maraca Ecological Station, Roraima's most important, and the Niquia National Park. The flames on Saturday pushed deeper into the fragile forest, normally too wet to burn, and the reservation of the stone-age Yanomami Indian tribe. The Yanomami are not used to pollution and the smoke could cause respiratory and other problems. The severe drought has reduced rivers to trickling streams and pools, raising the threat of an outbreak of malaria among the Indians as mosquitoes now have new breeding grounds, he said.
Malaria is already endemic in the area.
Federal officials fear the drought across Brazil's Amazon leaves the region ripe for similar devastating blazes in the coming years, a local newspaper said. Jornal do Brasil, citing the preliminary results of a government study, said trees in the Amazon are dying at nearly double the rate of previous years because of the scarcity of rain. The paper said the study was conducted between last June and October. Rains are not expected to return to Roraima again until late April. On Friday, authorities hoped to have some of the blazes under control within two weeks.