Since the end of January, the fires have not ceased in Patagonian localities such as El Bolsón (Rio Negro); Lanin Park (Neuquen) and Nahuel Huapi, an extensive protected area located between the two provinces mentioned.

So far, the flames have killed at least one person and devastated more than 25,000 hectares of forest and hundreds of houses.

In view of what happened, ATE communicated on its web page that its headquarters remain open to receive supplies and materials that can help the affected people, the brigades of the Forest Fire Prevention and Fighting Service and the fighters of National Parks and the Fire Management System.

The union will send the donations to the South Andean facility and then distribute them among those working in those areas.

The State is responsible for this tragedy due to its ecological denial and the budgetary adjustment on the programs that prevent fires’, said the general secretary of ATE in Río Negro, Romeo Aguiar.

We have come to accompany the brigadiers and fire fighters and to demand from the Government a salary increase for them, who receive indigent incomes.

Of course, the urgency today is to control the fire, to show solidarity, to rebuild, but we cannot stop thinking that women and men who have been demanding decent wages and stability for years are risking their lives on the front line, he added.

ef/abo/mem/gas