Argentina wildfire engulfs 500,000 hectares; see pics

A massive wildfire has engulfed more than 500,000 hectares in the northern Argentine province of Corrientes. Hundreds of firefighters have been working to bring the conflagration under control since last several days. As a precautionary measure, the authorities have evacuated people from houses and hotels near the provincial capital located about 800 kilometers north of Buenos Aires. "The fires are advancing by leaps and bounds and have already burned tens of thousands of hectares, turning the fields into a line of fire that is almost impossible to control," the Agricultural Entities Liaison Commission said in a statement. The Argentine province of Corrientes is a producer of farm products including citrus fruits, rice, tobacco, yerba mate, cotton, livestock and forestry. "There are almost 518,000 hectares on fire," Nicolas Pino, president of the Rural Society of Corrientes, told to media. "The fields will eventually recover, at some point it will rain heavily and this disaster will stop, but it really brings the problem to the forefront," he added.