JESSICA RAWNSLEY
Categories: All Climate Protest + Activism Global Social Justice Data-driven Science + Tech
THE SUNDAY TIMES
With flip flops and no gear, these volunteers stop the Amazon burning
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A streak of canary yellow emerges from the forest. José Martins speeds across the sand on a bright red quadbike, dressed in his full firefighter uniform, yellow helmet glinting in the sunlight.
Martins is chief of the fire brigade in Anã, a community of 350 ribeirinhos — riverside dwellers — living on the banks of the Arapiuns River in the northern Brazilian state of Para. Like many firefighters in the Amazon, he is a volunteer, and the quadbike is his fire engine.
For these firefighters, the fight is existential: a battle to protect their people, as well as the land and creatures their lives depend on. Martins’s grandfather died trying to put out a fire alone. Many have similar stories. “It’s very hard to be a volunteer, not earning anything, working just for love, for your territory,” the 49-year-old says. “But I feel so good when we extinguish the fire and give the land back to the community. It’s a big joy.”
Martins is chief of the fire brigade in Anã, a community of 350 ribeirinhos — riverside dwellers — living on the banks of the Arapiuns River in the northern Brazilian state of Para. Like many firefighters in the Amazon, he is a volunteer, and the quadbike is his fire engine.
For these firefighters, the fight is existential: a battle to protect their people, as well as the land and creatures their lives depend on. Martins’s grandfather died trying to put out a fire alone. Many have similar stories. “It’s very hard to be a volunteer, not earning anything, working just for love, for your territory,” the 49-year-old says. “But I feel so good when we extinguish the fire and give the land back to the community. It’s a big joy.”
