A wildfire burned close to several Olympic venues in Rio de Janeiro on Monday.
Below is an excerpt from an article in the Brisbane Times:
A forest fire on Monday placed the Olympic mountain biking venue in jeopardy, but games organisers insist the threat has passed.
Spectators arrived at the Olympic hockey centre late on Monday afternoon to find smoke and ash blowing over the venue ahead of the women’s quarter-final between Great Britain and Spain.
The conditions were a result of a fire which a Rio 2016 spokeswoman said started about 4pm near the Deodoro sports complex, home of the equestrian, rugby sevens, shooting, BMX, mountain biking, canoeing, kayaking, women’s basketball and modern pentathlon at these Games.
The spokeswoman said that the fire became more aggressive, placing the mountain bike centre in danger less than a week before it hosts the cross-country races of this year’s calendar.
But according to the spokeswoman, a change of wind direction moved the fire out of harm’s way. She said there had been no injuries as a result of the fire, with firefighters continuing in their attempts to extinguish it as of late on Monday night.
Another fire last week was near the rugby sevens venue.
Fire in Deodoro region puts Rio Olympics mountain bike centre in danger https://t.co/w14UiXXuVE pic.twitter.com/uGOIbWL0iz
— 1001pts Australia (@1001ptsAU) August 16, 2016
