Wildfires Rage Across Peru's Andes: Five Dead in Cusco and Over 16,000 Hectares Burned as Blazes Multiply
CUSCO - Wildfires across Peru's southern Andes escalated through the first week of October. A Panamericana Television report aired on October 9 confirmed five deaths in the Cusco region and more than 16,000 hectares of pasture, natural areas and crops destroyed. The Cusco regional disaster-risk office identified the victims as three elderly residents in Yanatile (Calca), Colquepata (Paucartambo) and Yanahuara (Urubamba), and two brothers aged 11 and 18 in Pomacanchi, Acomayo, who died of severe burns.
Strong winds, high temperatures and dry vegetation drove the spread. The hardest-hit provinces include Espinar, Acomayo, Chumbivilcas, Urubamba and Paruro, and highland communities lost livestock central to their livelihoods - alpacas, llamas, sheep and cattle. Compiled reporting put the national wildfire death toll for the first week of October at six, including one victim in Puno, with active blazes still burning in Cusco, Apurimac, Ayacucho, Junin and Puno.
Regional authorities are on high alert, calling for immediate aerial water drops and more firefighting brigades. The national weather service links reduced rainfall and dry vegetation to El Nino-related atmospheric conditions, and traditional agricultural burning is blamed for many ignitions; a deadly fire had already broken out in the Sacred Valley, on the route toward Machu Picchu, at the start of the month.
The fires have become a second emergency front for the Fujimori government beyond its security agenda. El Nino response was written into the delegated legislative powers precisely because of such chained drought and extreme-weather risks; suppression capacity and the recovery of rural livelihoods will be the practical test of the government's emergency system in the weeks ahead.
Sources: Compiled from Panamericana Television's October 9, 2026 report and Particle News' compiled coverage of six wildfire deaths across five regions.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 山火过火后的焦土林地（资料图），José Joaquín Cortes 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0（Wikimedia Commons）
