Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Porto Velho, Rondonia State, Brazil on Wednesday. Wildfires raging in the Amazon rainforest have hit a record number this year, with 72,843 fires detected so far by Brazil’s space research center INPE. The surge marks an 83 percent increase over the same period of 2018, the agency said Tuesday, and is the highest since records began in 2013. INPE said since Aug. 15 satellite images have spotted 9,507 new forest fires in the country, mostly in the Amazon basin, home to the world’s largest tropical forest seen as vital to countering global warming. Images show the northernmost state of Roraima covered in dark smoke. Amazonas declared an emergency in the south of the state and in its capital Manaus on Aug. 9. Acre, on the border with Peru, has been on environmental alert since Aug. 16 due to the fires. SD-Agencies