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12 de setembro de 2011Brazil real slips 1.16 pct to 1.7315 to the dollar
14 de setembro de 2011People arriving in Brasília in the dry season, especially in the months of August and September, are surprised that what they find is not a lush, green tropical paradise. Far from it, the landscape is bone dry and the colors almost lifeless browns, grays and black.
Brasilia is not in the Amazon. It lies on a high central plateau (“planalto central”) in the middle of savannah, Brazil’s second biggest biome after the jungle. And the central plateau savannah has a very dry dry season from April to September when brushfires are common and the wind is gusty.
This year the fires have been more intense and bigger than usual. And on Friday (September 9), after more than 90 days without rain, the relative humidity in Brasilia dropped to 14% and the Fire Department registered no less than 42 fires, three of them very large and out of control.
The situation got so bad that the Brazilian Air Force used a Hercules C-130 aircraft to dump water and chemicals on a huge fire that was out of control near the capital’s international airport (“Aeroporto Internacional Juscelino Kubitschek”). “We are using the Hercules aircraft because there is a risk that the fires in that area could interfere with air traffic. After we get the fire at the Juscelino Kubitschek airport under control, we will send the aircraft to other regions as requested by the Fire Department,” declared captain Paulo Costa of the Air Force.
Another region that became a priority on Friday, September 9, was the “National Forest,” a protected area just outside Brasilia near a town known as Brazlândia. Firemen on the ground were sending situation reports to the Air Force so a decision about using the Hercules C-130 could be made.
According to major Florindo of the Brasilia Fire Department, they have four aircraft of their own to fight fires, all of them smaller and more maneuverable than the huge Hercules that can cover an area 500 meters long by 50 meters wide and is used for big fires in areas of difficult access. The Fire Department also has one spotter plane, used to identify fires, two helicopters that can carry buckets of water and another plane that can dump 3,100 liters of water on a fire.
Friday morning the inhabitants of Brasilia (“brasilienses”) found the dry season cloudless blue sky that usually covers the city at this time of year a dirty brownish color. They were also treated to a strange disagreeable smell in the air and smoke (was that really smoke? everywhere?) stinging their eyes.
