South America Firestorm

"The trees are all burning black. The air is thick with smoke and ash - even the sea is on fire. I am so frightened."

- Iselvina Flores

The South America Firestorm was a disaster that took place shortly before the Second Tiberium War.

Overview
The blaze began when forest fires begun in multiple locations in Central and South America and soon turned into a raging forest fire. The disaster lasted for over five weeks, devastating 5,000 square miles of one of the last remaining forested regions of the planet. The severity of the fire was exacerbated by high winds and poor access, hampering fire fighting services. The affected regions had a particularly high population of the Forgotten, including some of the oldest mutants alive.

GDI has evacuated danger zones ranging from New Guatemala, the capital city of Guatemala and the largest in both the country and Central America, to coastal Chile. More than 450,000 civilians were evacuated from Central America alone. Schools remained closed during the blaze. However, not everyone was evacuated. By the fifth week of the blaze, some remote settlements (such as Azul in Peru) were still waiting for evacuation.

The death toll numbered in the tens of thousands as emergency services uncovered charred bodies in burnt out settlements. GDI's Tiberium operations have also suffered setbacks, as at least three separate Tiberium operations were lost to the fire on top of multiple refineries abandoned to the raging inferno.

Quotes
"With the global infestation of Tiberium, we must do everything possible to preserve what little is left of the world's precious forested zones. Although the GDI is sending as many resources to the region as possible, we desperately need more manpower to combat these fires that continue to rage out of control."

- Lewis Fitzpatrick, GDI Director, requesting non-enlisted civilians to volunteer for fire control service to GDI