Rio De Janeiro - Firefighters were battling yesterday to douse several blazes raging across the world's largest urban forest surrounding Rio de Janeiro that were apparently sparked by flames from unmanned, gas-fired balloons.
Working to control the second outbreak in a week, fire department officials said they were sending light aircraft to dump tonnes of water over the concentrations of flames dotted through Tijuca forest. The Christ statue which towers over Brazil's second city and hundreds of species of plants and wildlife are in the forest.