Brazil's National Institute for Space Research recorded tens of thousands of fire outbreaks in the Amazon basin, a substantial increase on the previous year, with smoke darkening the sky over São Paulo in the middle of the afternoon.
Most fires were linked to land clearance following deforestation rather than to natural causes. The government initially disputed the agency's figures and dismissed its director.
Leaders at the G7 summit in Biarritz offered emergency funding, which Brasília briefly rejected as an infringement of sovereignty before accepting some assistance from individual countries.
