“My dog and all our belongings burned down” in a raging fire that consumed at least five houses in the Dominican Republic

A fierce fire destroyed at least five homes in the Villa Esperanza sector of Santiago, Dominican Republic, leaving residents with total losses. Yaneli Veras, a medical student and one of the local victims, reported that her dog and all her belongings perished in the blaze because there was no time to salvage anything.

Simultaneously, weather reports for the country indicated that Saharan dust and a low-moisture air mass would maintain a grayish sky and minimal rainfall across most of the national territory.