Porto Velho under smoke amid record fires in the Amazon

By Gabriela Gonçalves / 25/08/2022 / 1 minute reading

Black smoke covered the sky over the capital of Rondônia this Thursday (25). The phenomenon has already occurred in other capitals, pointed out by experts as an effect of the fires. The smoke appears in the week in which the Amazon has a record number of fires.

Residents of the city of Porto Velho, in Rondônia, woke up this Thursday (25) with a dense gray layer, looking like soot, under their heads – and entering through their noses! Smoke reached the city on Wednesday and remained even thicker on Thursday morning.

ADVERTISING

On social media, residents and environmentalists relate the phenomenon to the increase in fires in the Amazon. The Burns Program of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) recorded 267 fires, since August 15th, in the Porto Velho region.

Those who breathe the smoke share, in posts on the networks, concern and fear:

I must already have smoker's lungs without ever having smoked cigarettes, just because I live in Porto Velho
— Margot (@danexxz) August 25

A friend passed these photos to me today. The first is from a viewpoint in Porto Velho, capital of Rondônia, on a normal day. The second is an image of the same location taken amid the fires that hit the region. It's not fog. It's smoke. pic.twitter.com/BZFZy3Rk7Q
— Leandro Prazeres (@PrazeresLeandro) August 16