The Brazilian state of Sao Paulo is struggling with wildfires. As of Friday evening, local authorities said the blaze was in the vicinity of 30 cities. Two people died in an industrial plant trying to fight the fire.
The Sao Paulo state government said two workers at an industrial plant in the city of Urupes died Friday while extinguishing a fire. It did not provide any details, Reuters reported.
As of Friday evening, fires were burning near 30 towns in the state, where areas have been struggling with dry, hot weather in recent days. The state government has also warned that forest fires could spread quickly in gusts of wind, potentially destroying large areas of natural vegetation.
There is no immediate threat of fires reaching the state capital, Sao Paulo, the largest city in Latin America with more than 11 million residents. Local media, however, report that smoke is obscuring parts of the sky.
Closed and blocked highways
Earlier, Raizen, the world's largest sugarcane processor, said industrial activities at its plant in the city of Sertaozinho were halted on Thursday due to fires in sugarcane fields around the plant.
A crisis committee has been formed to fight the fires, which have completely or partially blocked some 15 highways.
Brazil’s fire season typically peaks in August and September. This year, fires in the Pantanal started unusually early, in late May. The number of fires in the Amazon rainforest rose to its highest level in two decades in July.
Main image source: Reuters