Central Colombia forest fire threatens tourist town of Villa de Leyva

The country has battled multiple wildfires amid record-breaking temperatures fueled by El Nino and intense drought conditions.

The massive forest fire in central Colombia near the popular tourist town of Villa de Leyva on Sunday [Screen grab/ AFP]

A massive wildfire has broken out in central Colombia, threatening the popular tourist town of Villa de Leyva, according to local officials.

The forest fire is near the Andean town in the Boyaca department, with flames engulfing the San Marcos hillside above the colonial architecture and cobblestone streets that attract more than a million visitors annually.

The blaze has already consumed 40 hectares of native forest, sending massive plumes of smoke that are visible from the town’s central square, according to Colombian authorities.

On Saturday night, Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella posted on X that “Villa de Leyva is not alone”, pledging to mobilise all state resources to fight the fire and protect “this historical jewel” and “beautiful city that is the pride of Colombia”.

To combat the flames, the Boyaca department government said it is dispatching two aircraft. A military helicopter will also join the effort, along with firefighters from the capital, Bogota, Interior Minister Rodrigo Lara said.

The mayor of Bogota, Carlos Fernando Galan, will be sending a team of firefighters to join local crews from Tunja and Boyaca, reinforcing containment efforts and securing the urban centre, Lara said.

In the equatorial Andes, forest fires peak during the dry season, but this year they are fuelled by a severe El Nino weather pattern. Record high temperatures and lack of moisture have turned vast expanses of the Andean vegetation into tinderboxes. That has intensified a crisis that has already started 18 active wildfires across the country, according to the latest official data from Colombia’s National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD).

The impacts of El Nino, a natural weather pattern, are felt globally and do not affect the entire South American continent in the same way, inducing extreme droughts in some regions and torrential flooding in others. This year, it comes supercharged by the effects of climate change, which is worrying many scientists, governments and aid workers.

The warming of the adjacent Pacific has triggered catastrophic flash floods and landslides in countries such as Peru and Ecuador.

Unlike in the southern part of the continent, where countries including Argentina, Chile and Uruguay have been expecting unseasonably heavy rainfall, El Nino has the opposite effect in the northern part of the continent. A significant reduction in rainfall leads to severe drought conditions which can suppress cloud formation and displace normal rain patterns, driving average temperatures well above normal.

The soaring heat rapidly evaporates moisture from the ground and water basins, leaving countries such as Colombia with extended periods of drought and critically low precipitation.

“El Nino can bring devastating climate extremes on its own, but it’s unfolding today on a much warmer planet, increasing the likelihood that heat, drought, floods and fires will push communities and ecosystems beyond anything they have experienced before,” said Stephanie Roe, lead climate scientist with the World Wildlife Fund.

受厄尔尼诺现象和严重干旱的影响，该国气温屡创新高，并遭受了多起野火侵袭。

周日，哥伦比亚中部热门旅游小镇莱瓦镇附近发生大规模森林火灾。[截图/法新社]

据当地官员称，哥伦比亚中部爆发了一场大规模野火，威胁到热门旅游小镇莱瓦镇。

森林大火发生在博亚卡省的安第斯山脉小镇附近，火焰吞噬了圣马科斯山坡，那里有殖民时期的建筑和鹅卵石街道，每年吸引超过一百万游客。

据哥伦比亚当局称，这场大火已经吞噬了 40 公顷的原始森林，从镇中心广场都能看到滚滚浓烟。

周六晚上，哥伦比亚总统阿韦拉多·德拉埃斯普里利亚在X上发帖称“莱瓦镇并不孤单”，并承诺调动所有国家资源来扑灭大火，保护“这颗历史瑰宝”和“哥伦比亚的骄傲——美丽的城市”。

为扑灭大火，博亚卡省政府表示将派出两架飞机。内政部长罗德里戈·拉拉表示，一架军用直升机也将加入灭火行动，首都波哥大的消防员也将参与其中。

拉拉表示，波哥大市长卡洛斯·费尔南多·加兰将派遣一支消防队与来自通哈和博亚卡的当地消防队会合，加强控制火势，确保市中心的安全。

在赤道安第斯山脉，森林火灾通常在旱季达到高峰，但今年却因厄尔尼诺现象的强烈影响而愈演愈烈。创纪录的高温和干旱使安第斯山脉大片植被变成了易燃的火药桶。根据哥伦比亚国家灾害风险管理部门（UNGRD）的最新官方数据，这场危机已在全国范围内引发了18起活跃的森林火灾。

厄尔尼诺现象是一种自然气候模式，其影响遍及全球，对整个南美大陆的影响并不相同，一些地区遭遇极端干旱，而另一些地区则遭受洪灾。今年，气候变化的影响加剧了厄尔尼诺现象，这令许多科学家、政府和救援人员感到担忧。

邻近的太平洋海域变暖，在秘鲁和厄瓜多尔等国引发了灾难性的山洪暴发和山体滑坡。

与南美洲南部（包括阿根廷、智利和乌拉圭等国）预计出现异常强降雨的情况不同，厄尔尼诺现象对南美洲北部的影响恰恰相反。降雨量显著减少导致严重干旱，这会抑制云的形成，改变正常的降雨模式，并推高平均气温，使其远高于正常水平。

酷热的天气迅速蒸发了地表和水库中的水分，导致哥伦比亚等国家长期干旱，降水量严重不足。

世界自然基金会首席气候科学家斯蒂芬妮·罗伊表示：“厄尔尼诺现象本身就能带来毁灭性的极端气候，但它如今发生在一个更加温暖的星球上，这增加了高温、干旱、洪水和火灾将使社区和生态系统遭受前所未有的冲击的可能性。”