SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Wildfires affecting or nearing 30 Brazilian cities were raging on Friday evening, the state of Sao Paulo said, adding that two people died at an industrial plant while trying to control the flames.
The government said in a statement that the cities had been affected by dry and hot weather in recent days.
The state government also warned that wildfires could spread quickly due to strong winds, potentially destroying large areas of natural vegetation.
The government has not yet reported that the fire has directly reached Sao Paulo, Latin America’s most populous city, with a population of more than 11 million.
However, local media reported that smoke obscured some parts of the sky over the state capital.
Two employees at an industrial plant in the city of Orubes died on Friday while fighting a fire, the government said, without providing further details.
Earlier today, Raizen, the world’s largest sugarcane processor, said industrial operations at its Sertaozinho plant had been halted since Thursday due to fires in the surrounding sugarcane fields.
The Sao Paulo state government has set up an emergency committee to deal with the fires, which have also led to the complete or partial closure of about 15 highways.
Brazil’s forest fire season typically peaks in August and September.
Wildfires this year started unusually early in the Pantanal, the world’s largest wetland, in late May, while the number of fires in the Amazon rainforest rose to a two-decade high in July, government data showed earlier this month.