Nearly 31 thousand fires were recorded last month in the Brazilian part of the Amazon. This is the highest figure in nine years and almost three times more than a year earlier, the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) said on Sunday, TASS reported.

A total of 46,825 fires have been recorded in the Amazon since the beginning of the year. According to agency statistics, a record number of fires in the region in August - 63,764 - was recorded in 2005. At that time, a record was set for the number of natural fires from January to September throughout the country — almost 150 thousand foci. According to INPE, in the first seven months of this year, fires destroyed over 1.8 million hectares of Amazonian forests located in Brazil, which is approximately 0.44% of the biome.

Last week, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro signed a decree allowing the army to be used to extinguish the Amazonian forests. According to the country's Defense Ministry, over 43 thousand troops are involved in fire fighting activities. For these purposes, the Ministry of Economy of the South American Republic allocated R$ 38.5 million to the military (over $ 9 million), despite the fact that it had previously been stated that the authorities lacked the necessary resources.

The fire operation involved 15 aircraft and 150 units of special equipment of the Amazonian military district, based in the capital of Rondonia, Porto Velho, in the west of the Amazon. The second military group - the northern military district - is fighting fires in the eastern part of the region from the capital of the state of Para, Belena.

The neighbors in the region also help the country's military to copy with the natural disaster: the Chilean authorities sent four airports and 30 specialists to Brazil, another plane with a team of firefighters sent reinforcements from Ecuador. The government of the Republic of South America agreed to accept Israeli aid and targeted funding of London in the amount of £ 10 million ($ 12.1 million).