Fires Shroud Mexico in Hazardous Haze

MEXICO CITY — As if the air in this metropolis wasn’t foul enough already, a plague of El Nino-fed forest fires, slash-and-burn clearing and searing temperatures has created a relentless smoky pall so vast that it stretches all the way to Houston and Miami.

And there’s been no escape here. Residents accustomed to driving out of the valley of Mexico City to weekend homes or trekking by bus to modest swimming spas to escape the funk have found the air in the countryside equally polluted--or worse.

Most states in central and southern Mexico have been engulfed in a steadily thickening haze throughout this seemingly endless dry season, which usually stretches from October to late May. In recent days the smoke grew so dense that the plumes began reaching Texas and the southeastern U.S.

Texas Health Commissioner William Reynolds Archer told reporters Tuesday that the smoke was reaching hazardous levels and that people should stay indoors.

In Tabasco state on Mexico’s Gulf Coast, authorities closed the airport for three days last week when the smoke made it unsafe for planes to land, and city health workers handed out gauze facemasks. The Chiapas capital of Tuxtla Gutierrez on Monday declared an environmental emergency, and people drove with their lights on at midday. All four airports in Honduras were shut Wednesday by the pollution.

The Mexican Environment Ministry said Tuesday that 9,649 forest fires were recorded this year, burning nearly 600,000 acres, and 247 fires were reported burning Monday. The number of fires is up 87% over the five-year average, and the acreage burned is up 210%.

The blazes also have been deadly. Nearly 50 people have died in fires this year, including 19 amateur firefighters who were killed in a single incident in Puebla state last week and another who died in Veracruz state Tuesday. On Wednesday, newspapers reported that an 18-year-old asthma sufferer in Tabasco state died as a result of the smoke.

Authorities acknowledge that the only hope is for rain, which will douse the fires and clear the skies. So far, there have been nothing but rumors of rain in most states, although thunder has started to clap in the capital in the afternoons, raising hopes for relief.

Oscar Cedeno, director of forestry protection, said the government believed that the worst had passed because the season for slash-and-burn clearing was nearing an end. He said the fires had aggravated the unusually high temperatures and raised levels of suspended particulates.

The temperature in Mexico City hit 100 degrees Saturday, the highest for that date since 1927. At an altitude of 7,500 feet, such heat is rare. The city’s ozone pollution index hit 248 the same day, far above the danger level of 100 and two points below the hazard level.

Throw in the recent belches of smoke and ash from nearby Popocatepetl volcano that have occurred with increasing frequency, and the high levels of fetid dust hanging in the capital’s air due to lack of wind, and the mixture becomes disgustingly murky.

Towering “Popo,” 33 miles southeast of the capital but rarely visible anymore through the smog, spewed steam and ash about a mile into the air Sunday, dumping a light blanket of ash on nearby towns.

In the less polluted northern city of Monterrey, the problem has been heat: Temperatures hit 115 degrees, and environmental officials said 200,000 farmers were affected by heat and drought. Baja California has been spared--instead experiencing more rain than normal.

Mexico City crouches in a valley ringed by mountains and filled with 18 million people using 3.4 million cars a day, not to mention 800,000 more vehicles that commute daily into the city from the adjacent state of Mexico, according to Raimundo Artiz, head of transportation in the capital.

That generates some of the world’s worst pollution levels, even without any fires.

Ozone readings in the low 200s have occurred regularly since March, even though the worst pollution normally is recorded in colder January and February. When ozone readings reach 250 or higher, Mexico City invokes extreme measures, barring 40% of the cars from the roads, shutting many factories and keeping schoolchildren indoors.

The human hand has played the largest role in choking the country with smoke. In rural areas, farmers often burn brush to clear farmland, creating constant haze in the spring. Near Mexico City and other urban centers, squatters have been setting fire to tinder-dry protected ecological zones to clear spaces for their invasive informal housing.

The southern state of Chiapas and central state of Michoacan have had the most fires, but Guerrero and Oaxaca also have been aflame. Similar problems have been reported throughout much of Central America as well.

Federal and state officials have repeatedly warned that they will enforce bans on intentionally setting fires to clear land, but to little avail. “There is a lack of compliance with any environmental norm,” said Homer Aridjis, a poet and founder of the Group of 100, an environmental action organization. “The government doesn’t have the capacity to implement regulations. The rules exist, but nobody complies.”

He said the cause of the crisis is not just El Nino; worse is the human-caused deforestation that is changing the climate and causing water problems and air pollution.

At a newspaper stand in Mexico City, vendor Pedro Chavez said: “It is worse than in previous years. You notice it in your eyes, in the tiredness you feel. Our two children are getting sick more often, and the heat causes rashes. If we could, we would leave Mexico. But this is where our business is.”

Brinley Bruton of The Times’ Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.