For the third day running, Montevideo has been swathed in a shroud of smoke. Not toxic, chemical smoke, but pleasant-smelling country smoke that irritates the eyes and lungs.

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Misty Mate

The cause? Eleven days of fires in the Entre Rios Province and the Tigre Delta of Argentina. The official explanation is that farmers have deliberately set ablaze scrubland as an easy way to clear it and prepare it for grazing. The farmers have responded to the accusation by saying that they should not be judged as a sector, but that the few individuals involved should be brought to justice. The already tense situation between the government and farmers – a few weeks ago a three-week strike by farmers paralysed the country, leaving supermarket shelves empty – worsened when the government denounced the 160 owners and managers of the burning pastureland. President Cristina Kirchner accused them of being ‘irrational and irresponsible’.

Other theories hold that the fires have been caused either by poachers hunting otters and capybaras, or by pyromaniacs.

In an area of 70,000 hectares (270 square miles), 570 fires are blazing. Firefighters are battling to get them under control. The closest fire to Montevideo is 260 kilometres (160 miles) away, and the highest concentration is 340 kilometres (220 miles) from the Uruguayan capital. Climatic conditions, with a high pressure area firmly in place, and unfavourable winds, have pushed the smoke eastwards and kept it low and thick.

Few Braved the Rambla

Calls to the emergency fire services quadrupled on Thursday as compared with the norm, but were down by 30% today, as Montevideans became accustomed to the situation.

On a Saturday of what should have been idyllic autumn weather, with temperatures soaring to 30˚C (mid-eighties Fahrenheit), and not a natural cloud in the sky, visibility today in Montevideo was down from the normal 10 kilometres to 1 kilometre. The normally busy Rambla – the popular walkway along the coast – and the beaches, were practically deserted, and cafés and restaurants took their tables indoors.

Buceo Yacht Club - No Boats Out Today

In Carrasco airport all flights to and from the central Buenos Aires airport of Aeroparque were either delayed or cancelled yesterday. Today the situation seemed to have slightly improved.

Empty Bench at Punta Gorda

According to the National Environment Agency, the smoke is harmless, and although it is causing serious discomfort to allergy and asthma sufferers, it will do no lasting damage.

Meanwhile, just across the water in Buenos Aires, 15 million people have been affected. Buenos Aires could hardly be less aptly named at this time. Yesterday Avenida 9 de Julio looked more like London on a foggy day, with visibility down to 100 metres. Many people covered their faces with masks. Road, tube and air traffic were disrupted, and health warnings were issued.

With the weather set to remain stable and the fires still out of control, Uruguayans cannot look forward to any immediate change from across the water.
‘I live in Buenos Aires,’ a reader of the Uruguayan daily ‘El País’ wrote. ‘I’ve just written to Botnia* to book a room with a view of the chimney so that I can take my children there for the weekend. I want them to breathe some fresh air.’

*Botnia is the newly-operational Finnish-built cellulose plant in Fray Bentos, Uruguay, which has been at the centre of two years of tension between Uruguay and Argentina, with mostly Argentine demonstrators protesting and blocking border crossings. One of the criticisms of the plant is that the chimney can be seen from a nearby beach.