(20 Mar 1998) Portuguese/Nat
A three-month-old fire continues to destroy the Amazon rain forest and threaten the lives of the indigenous communities in the area.
Since January, the state of Roraima on the Brasilian border with Venezuela has been ravaged by the worst fires in recent history.
There has been no rain for six months and forecasters say the dry spell, blamed on the El Nino weather phenomenon, will last until late April.
This is the fire that has raged out of control for three months - penetrating deep into the Savannah reservations of the Macuxi tribes.
In the small village of Uiramita, the Macuxi Indians now live in fear of the flames that are inching closer and closer by the day.
This Macuxi settlement, 370 kilometers north of Boa Vista, has been severely affected by the fire.
Their cattle are dying of starvation and those that have survived are producing little milk.
These Macuxi Indians offer up prayers before eating a meal of rice, beans and armadillo soup.
They know they are lucky to have anything to eat.
SOUNDBITE: (Portuguese)
"The problem of the fire is big, starts for the lack of water, the cattle. Here we are not dying of thirst, but outside here, the cattle. They say that there is a lot of cattle dying of thirst."
SUPERCAPTION: Tome Gomes, Resident
Because of the flames the pipes that take the water to the village of Uiramita were burned leaving the villagers without water for days.
The problem has been sorted out now, but the fear of the fire remains.
On Friday, hundreds of men, including 100 volunteers from Argentina, have joined the fight against the fires in the Amazon.
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"We will use 410 fire fighters, we will use various equipments that are needed to combat rain forest fires and we will also use some helicopters that the Brazilian air force are borrowing to us"
SUPER CAPTION: Edilson Bezerra de Oliviera, Fire Brigade Chief
To combat the fire they will use water bombs, back packs with water and two helicopters to take the fire brigades in the affected areas.
It's not easy for the government to control Roraima - it is a wedge of
jungle and savanna between Guyana and Venezuela.
Despite a law banning fires, farmers and ranchers routinely set them as a land-clearing device.
But this year, a lack of rainfall sent the fires raging through the tinder-dry vegetation.
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