Central Colombia forest fire threatens tourist town of Villa de Leyva
The country has battled multiple wildfires amid record-breaking temperatures fuelled by El Nino and drought conditions.
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.
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).