Wildfires have been ravaging in parts of Patagonia, Argentina, affecting more than 30,000 hectares of land including large forest areas.
Professional firefighters, the military and volunteers have worked around the clock to contain the fire, but extreme weather is worsening the situation.
Local residents said they are doing what they can with the resources they have to help control the fire, but it is not enough.
"The hardest part is knowing that if it doesn't rain, there is nothing that we can do. We can save houses. We can put out some of the fires. But if it doesn't rain, unfortunately we have few resources to address it," said Matias, a volunteer firefighter.
According a local fire control department, there is little rain forecast in the coming weeks. With no snow during the past winter, unusually high temperatures and high winds are now fueling these fires.
"That combination of factors meant that the fire had explosive impacts and advanced at an extraordinary pace. We have to remember this is dense forest with trees around 25 or 30 meters high. The fire essentially gained a life of its own," said Ariel Amtahuer, director of the local national parks fire managing department.
Currently two major wildfires have got out of control in this Argentine region. The first began in December 2025 in the Alerces National Park, a world heritage site. It is now just 12 kilometers away from joining the latest fire which began in early January.
Thousands of tourists have been evacuated, with homes and livelihoods destroyed, and irreparable damage done to the region's unique ecosystems.
"In the Andean forests lives one of the largest woodpeckers on the planet: the Magellanic woodpecker. To reproduce, this bird depends on ancient trees -- those over 200-years-old. This means it takes two centuries before a tree becomes suitable for the woodpecker to use for nesting," said Claudia Nardini, a natural environment scholar, who works with Aves Argentinas, a bird protecting organization.
Wildfires ravage in Patagonia, destroy forests in Argentina
Wildfires ravage in Patagonia, destroy forests in Argentina
