Brazil uses military aircraft to fight forest fires in the southeast

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The Brazilian government is using military aircraft to fight the forest fires in the southeastern state of São Paulo. The highest level of alert has been declared in more than 40 cities, the Minister for Regional Development announced on Sunday.

Minister Waldez Goes said four aircraft would initially be mobilized “to fight the flames and monitor the affected areas.”

This includes an Embraer KC-390, a troop transport aircraft that has been modified to drop up to 12,000 liters of water on fire areas.

One of the cities most at risk is Ribeirao Preto, with over 700,000 inhabitants, about 300 kilometers from Sao Paulo.

Residents of an upscale neighborhood have already had to leave their homes, the news site G1 reported.

Videos posted on social media showed Ribeirao Preto plunged into near-total darkness by a thick layer of smoke on Saturday.

“It's apocalyptic. Lots of wind, lots of smoke – you can't even see the city. And it's 5 p.m.,” a person wearing a protective mask can be heard saying on a video.

Two factory workers died while fighting a fire in Urupes in the north of the state on Friday, officials said.

Late Saturday, São Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas declared a state of emergency in 45 cities and announced the allocation of ten million reais (about $1.8 million) to help farmers whose crops were lost in the flames.

Around 40 cattle were killed in a fire on a farm, officials in the city of Santo Antonio do Aracangua said.

Locals hope that the rain expected to reach large parts of the area in the next few hours will help extinguish the fires. The ongoing drought in the region has made the situation even worse.

The state of São Paulo is currently experiencing its worst month in terms of forest fires since records began in 1998. According to the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), 3,480 individual fires were recorded, more than double the number of last year.

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