The provincial Government gathered mayors and communal presidents from localities in the departments of La Capital, Las Colonias, Garay, and San Justo with the aim of jointly and coordinately addressing actions for the prevention and integrated management of forest fires.
The activity took place this morning in the ATE Auditorium, located at San Luis 2854 in the city of Santa Fe, and was attended by the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Enrique Estévez; the Secretary of Government, Municipalities, and Communes, Horacio Ciancio; and the Secretary of Civil Protection, Marcos Escajadillo. This meeting is the first of several others that will be held this week with representatives from other departments of the province.
Extreme Precautions
Minister Enrique Estévez stated that “we are conducting training in various locations throughout the province of Santa Fe for 120 brigadistas, which is the number we have today; however, we believe it is very important that this training be continuous. As the Secretary of Civil Protection mentioned, we are also working on an assessment of the work tools.”
“Together with the Ministry of Productive Development, we are working with organizations linked to agricultural production in order to enhance precautions during this time when we are transitioning from El Niño to La Niña, in a period of drought and frosts that increase the risk of dry grass,” he added.
The Minister emphasized “the very important work with the province of Entre Ríos, which is something we have been doing repeatedly, and we will also include the province of Córdoba so that we can, as the Central Region, share experiences, tools, and have coordinated efforts in facing this situation.”
“This is a very complex issue that requires a lot of prudence; it is important not to stigmatize any activity; we believe that all activities, when conducted correctly and with care, reduce risks. For us, it is important to build common protocols,” said Estévez.
Interest
Horacio Ciancio explained that “we started last month with the first training sessions, there is a great demand and also a great need on our part, from the provincial Government, to train. Governor Maximiliano Pullaro, as part of the Strategic Plan of the provincial government, has established the training of local governments, which is very important in this specific area.” The official also stated that it is key to “coordinate, understand what the tasks are, and how we will approach the various jobs that need to be undertaken; the task of the provincial government is to work preventively, and we are very clear on that.”
For his part, Marcos Escajadillo detailed that “during this week we will finalize a work protocol to know what equipment we have, what equipment we do not have, and this is a task we are carrying out with local governments. Often, the responsibility is placed solely on Volunteer Firefighters, but Volunteer Firefighters often need equipment like an excavator or a water tank to build a firebreak, which many times local communities do not have or only possess sprinklers. So, this requires coordinated and articulated work between local government and provincial government that we are initiating.”
“La Niña”
The Quarterly Forecast from the National Meteorological Service (SMN) indicates “precipitation lower than to much lower than normal” across the entire territory of Santa Fe, and the models warn of a high probability of the development of a La Niña phase during the period of August/October 2024 up to, at least, January/March 2025, a phenomenon that is one of the main factors generating forest fires.
