President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and First Lady Rosangela da Silva flew over the devastated area of this nature reserve in the Brazilian capital, according to images published on their social networks.
“The federal government is working with firefighters to fight the flames,” the president wrote.
It is the biggest fire of the year in the city, which has accumulated 145 days without rain and minimal humidity levels.
The fires have so far ravaged 1,200 hectares, according to the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), which manages Brazil's national parks.
He said the mobilization against the fire should continue throughout the night in the park, which covers an area of 30,000 hectares.
The fire broke out on the same day that Supreme Court Justice Flavio Dino allowed the government to exceed the spending limit to finance the fight against what he sees as a “fire pandemic”.
“Protect Populations”
“We cannot refuse maximum and effective aid to more than half of our territory […] under the pretext of complying with an accounting rule that is not in the Constitution,” said Mr. Dino, who was Lula's justice minister until January.
“The goal is to completely untie the hands of the Brazilian state” to protect the populations affected by the flames, especially in the Amazon (north), he added.
The number of fires in September (55,517) has already exceeded that recorded during the entire month of September 2023 (46,498), according to the National Institute for Space Research (INPE).
Brazil's fires are spreading more easily because of a historic drought that experts attribute to climate change and low humidity.