Fire rages through reserve in Mexico’s resort-filled Yucatan

MEXICO CITY – Mexico has deployed seven fire-fighting brigades and a military helicopter in an effort to stamp out a fire raging through the Sian Ka’an nature reserve on the Yucatan peninsula.

The civil protection co-ordinator for the state of Quintana Roo said Sunday the fire has already consumed 600 hectares (1,500 acres) of brush and other plants.

Adrián Martínez said the fire started in the municipality of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, which is slated to become a stop between the high-end beach resort Tulum and Bacalar near the Belize border for the Maya Train that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador plans to build.

The National Commission for Protected Natural Areas posted pictures online of smoke billowing across swaths of mangrove.