Fires fuelled by El Nino leave 12 dead in Peru

Forest fires fuelled by El Nino have killed 12 people and left hundreds homeless in Peru since June, authorities in the Andean country said Wednesday.

Most of the victims were farmers who died of injuries sustained trying to fight the flames, the National Emergency Operations Center, which goes by the Spanish acronym COEN, said.

The worst-affected region was Cusco, where a fire broke out close to the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu earlier this month.

A total of 457 forest fires were recorded in Peru between June and October.

Biologist Daniel Valle of the Scientific University of the South in Lima said that the flames spread quickly due to high temperatures and dry conditions caused by El Nino.

“We have a huge mass of hot, dry air over the whole of Peru as a result of El Nino,” he told AFP.

The fires, which are often started by farmers who burn brush to clear land for crops, have consumed over 1,000 hectares of farmland and destroyed around a hundred homes.

A further 12,000 hectares of natural vegetation have also gone up in smoke.

On Wednesday, seven fires were burning in the Andes and the Peruvian Amazon, according to the COEN.

El Nino is a naturally occurring weather phenomenon that warms surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, bringing worldwide changes in winds, pressure and rainfall patterns.

This year’s “Super” El Nino is set to peak in December, but is already wreaking havoc in some regions, including Central America, where animals are dying from drought.