The Amazon fire season is building momentum, with 227 fires covering nearly 128,000 hectares, reported between May 28 and August 10. By today, that number rose to 266 fires.More than 220 of the May 28 to June 10 fires occurred in Brazil, with just six in Bolivia, and one in Peru. 95% of the Brazilian fires were illegal and in violation of the nation’s 120-day ban on fires. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has called the 2020 reports of deforestation and fires a “lie.”Most Amazon blazes are set, with land grabbers, ranchers and farmers using fire as a deforestation tool, and as a means of converting rainforest to pasture and croplands.Fourteen of the Brazilian fires were within protected areas. The most heavily impacted of these were Jamanxim and Altamira national forests in Pará state — areas long notorious for criminal land grabbing. A fire hotspot in the Amazon rainforest in Mato Grosso state Brazil, July 2020. © Christian Braga / Greenpeace A total of 227 fires covering 127,866 hectares (315,963 acres) — an area nearly twice as large as New York City — were reported between May 28 and August 10. The number of fires is increasing as the region enters the peak fire season, according to an analysis of satellite data by the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP). As of today, August 13, that number has risen to 266 fires. More than 220 of those observed between May 28 and August 10 occurred in Brazil, with just six in Bolivia and one in Peru. Over 95% of the Brazilian blazes were illegal, violating the nation’s 120 day fire ban enacted by President Jair Bolsonaro on July 15. The illegal blazes are occurring despite the advance deployment of the Brazilian Army to the Amazon in May to prevent fires being set.