Fires resume strongly in southern Chile: warn situation is ‘very worrying’

sources of forest fires resumed strongly this Saturday in the Biobío and La Araucanía regionsin southern Chile, and Interior Minister Carola Tohá explained that “the fire has reached very worrying characteristics” in populated areas such as the municipality of Teodoro Schmidt and Victoria.

As explained by the Secretary of State, during this Friday “things developed much more seriously than expected” in the Biobío region, generating situations of great “tension” in El Cortijo, Santa Ana and Coronel.

On Friday, the Executive reported that around 25% of the fires registered so far in 2023 were intentional, phenomena which in the past two weeks have claimed the lives of 25 people and burned more than 400,000 hectares over the course of the year.

The data provided by the head of the Interior, as detailed, are based on assessments carried out by the National Forestry Corps (Conaf), which to date has investigated 600 accidents in 2023.

For his part, the Minister of Construction and Urban Planning, Carlos Montes, said that “a very big risk is being run” with the reactivation of the flames in Biobío and that the accidents affect “the population and the industry”.

After leading a new meeting of the Disaster Risk Management Committee (Cogrid) this Saturday, Montes outlined the situation: “Yesterday all the hypotheses that existed were surpassed by reality: the fire advanced at a higher rate and with contagions, with leaps to 800 meters, 1 kilometer away”.

“There is work to contain the fire where it is. Conaf is specifying the plan and what efforts it requires from the central government, because it requires a tripled effort. Scenario two, that this happens in advance, the rear admiral is preparing a series of actions in such a way as to respond to such an eventuality, ”explained the head of the Housing portfolio.

In the past two weeks, more than 7,000 people were affected during the emergencydescribed as one of the worst disasters suffered by the South American country in terms of forest fires.

Up to now, more than 430,000 hectares have been consumed by the flames, 200,000 of which registered in the Biobío region.

Background with more than twenty dead

At the beginning of February, in the center of the neighboring village, following a series of forest fires, Chile has recorded the worst catastrophe in recent years with 24 dead and nearly a thousand wounded.

2,300 members of the brigade had to intervene to fight the flames that devastated more than 160,000 hectares. Even the president, Gabriel Boric, thanked for the international aid received. “What should have happened in one year happened in three days,” authorities said.

Authorities have arrested ten people over their alleged involvement in the devastating fires. One of them was caught with a drum of fuel, it was reported.