Peru forest fires kill 12 since June, officials say

Forest fires in Peru have killed 12 people and left hundreds homeless since June, authorities said Wednesday.

Most of those killed were farmers who died from injuries sustained while trying to fight the flames, the National Emergency Operations Center, known as COEN, said.

Authorities recorded 457 forest fires in Peru between June and October. The fires have consumed more than 1,000 hectares of farmland, destroyed about 100 homes and burned a further 12,000 hectares of natural vegetation.

COEN said seven fires were still burning on Wednesday in the Andes and the Peruvian Amazon. The worst-affected region was Cusco, where a fire broke out close to the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu earlier this month.

Daniel Valle, a biologist at the Scientific University of the South in Lima, said the flames spread quickly because high temperatures and dry conditions linked to El Nino had left a mass of hot, dry air over Peru.

El Nino is a naturally occurring weather phenomenon that warms surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, changing wind, pressure and rainfall patterns around the world.