Bolivia declares a national emergency due to wildfires

Bolivia has declared a national emergency due to raging forest fires, the country's defense ministry announced. "To date adding the pasture areas and forest areas affected by fire, we have 3.8 million affected hectares (9.4 million acres," said Environment Minister Alan Lisperguer. Bolivia has seen the largest number of wildfires since 2010 with at least 3 million hectares (7.5 million acres) burned this year according to Inpe, Brazil's space research agency that monitors fires. South America is in the throes of its peak fire season, that spans August and September, after an unusually early fire season started devastating the country in July following a drought. - Report from Reuters