translated from Spanish: Wildfires soar in a year that is expected to be critical due to drought and high temperatures

In a ceremony that those present considered atypical, last week the Metropolitan Region welcomed the Roble 7 Forest Fire Brigade, the first team against accidents of this type to be constituted in the capital, whose formation had to be carried out earlier than expected. ” This brigade is being formed in advance given the meteorological conditions that the area is suffering,” explained the director of Conaf in the RM, Alex Madariaga.In the opinion of the authorities, the coming season is expected to be complex given the extensive drought that has sectors of the country with a rainfall deficit of more than 70%. The capital’s presidential delegate, Felipe Guevara, explained that the lack of water has the hills and meadows with a large amount of flammable material, which added to the high temperatures predicts “a year with many fires.” And the sinisters have already begun. Since the beginning of the season in July until now, more than 70 forest fires have already been identified in the country, which affected about 2,000 hectares, a figure much higher than last year’s record, which at this point had about 100 hectares burned, and higher than the average of the five-year period in which 150 hectares would normally be burned.” We have an occurrence of affectation that is very out of the ordinary, “warned the manager of Fires of Conaf, Aida Baldini.In other regions the preparations have also been accelerated. Valparaiso has already formed its first emergency brigade and next Monday plans to continue forming more, for which they called young people to enlist. In Los Ríos it was decided to advance to November the work of elimination of fine and vegetable fuel in 12 communes that have had the largest fires in recent years, and in Ñuble coordination with the Ministry of Public Works to make firewalls began. ” A critical season of forest fires is expected, therefore, preventive work is vital, “said mop seremi Javier Parra.13 regions on alertAs the beginning of August the Government started with the planning for this season’s fire program.As part of the work President Sebastián Piñera led a meeting with several authorities with international experts in forest fire prevention and combat. The event was attended by Joaquín Ramírez-Rico, who worked in the control of the California fires; and Marc Castellnou, chief inspector of the Forest Action Group of the Firefighters of Cataluña.Se expects that in the coming days La Moneda will detail the actions that were agreed. One of them was the declaration of a preventive state of emergency in 13 regions, from Atacama to Magallanes, due to the “risk of imminent development of forest fires,” according to the decree issued by the Ministry of the Interior. The risk finds its origin in a marked decrease in rainfall and in an evident increase in temperatures above historical climatological averages, variables that affect a greater availability of fine dead fuel available for burning,” the statement reads.

Original source in Spanish