Families in Colombia’s Tolima department are grappling with devastating losses as wildfires continue to ravage the region, straining the capacity of local emergency services. Firefighters have spent several days battling blazes in the rural villages of Chagualá Adentro and Chagualá Afuera, part of the municipality of Coello, one of several areas hit hard by a severe drought and unusually high temperatures linked to the El Niño weather pattern.
Among those affected is Johanna Canizales Vásquez, who runs a small roadside restaurant with her husband, Jaiber Briñez, in the Gualanday area. The couple sells traditional dishes and salpicón—a popular Colombian fruit salad drink—to truckers, tourists, and travelers along the busy highway connecting the cities of Ibagué and Bogotá. When flames suddenly erupted in the nearby village of Caimito and spread toward Gualanday, Canizales had no time to rescue any of her business’s belongings, losing her primary source of income in an instant.
Her story reflects a broader crisis unfolding across Tolima, where fire crews are struggling to keep pace with multiple simultaneous outbreaks. In a related development, Colombia’s Interior Minister, Rodrigo Lara, recently confirmed the arrest of two individuals suspected of deliberately starting some of the fires, calling the incidents a criminal act.
Read the full original report at El Tiempo for more details on the unfolding emergency.