CMPC firefighters fought more than 120 forest fires in 44 districts of Chile last week

A total of 126 fires in the Regions of Maule, Ñuble, Biobío, La Araucanía and Los Ríos were fought by the company’s fire brigades last week. More than 60% of them were fought on neighbors’ land.

More than 4,300 forest fires have already been recorded so far in the 2022-2023 season. According to data reported by CONAF, this is 4% higher than the last season. Due to this situation, CMPC, just like every other year, has activated all its aerial and ground resources to help put out the fires that have been burning in recent days.

Last week the CMPC fire brigades fought a total of 126 incidents in 44 districts in south-central Chile. Of the total area struck by the fires in which the company’s firefighting crews have participated, 60% are on land adjacent to company property. Specifically in the Maule Region, the teams worked in the districts of Cauquenes, Licantén, Parral, Peumo, Sagrada Familia, San Javier, and Yerbas Buenas. Meanwhile, crews in the Ñuble Region have fought fires in Chillán, El Carmen, Quirihue, Ranquil, San Nicolás and Yungay.

Further south in the Biobío Region the efforts were concentrated in Cabrero, Contulmo, Hualqui, Los Ángeles, Mulchén, Nacimiento, Negrete, Quilaco, San Pedro de la Paz, San Rosendo, Santa Bárbara, Tirúa and Yumbel. In the La Araucanía Region CMPC forestry workers have been fighting fires in Angol, Cholchol, Collipulli, Ercilla, Freire, Lautaro, Loncoche, Los Sauces, Lumaco, Nueva Imperial, Purén, Temuco, Teodoro Schmidt, Toltén, Traiquén and Victoria. Some have even traveled to Mariquina in the Los Ríos Region to stamp out the flames.

The resources the company has used in these efforts this season include 24 aircraft, 1,220 heliports and GPS helipads, 32 landing and water loading strips, 441 water sources for helicopter loading and 64 aircraft loading pools. They also have 108 ground combat brigades, 12 tanker brigades and 8 mechanized fire brigades that specialize in building firewalls.

Two AS332L2 or Super Puma helicopters have been recently added, which are aircraft of 20 meters in length capable of transporting up to 3,500 liters of water. CMPC’s Super Pumas are based in Los Angeles and Angol and can reach up to 270 km/h. Such speed means that the water and firefighters can be transported quickly to almost any geographical area in Chile, which makes controlling fire more efficient.

Intentionality

In the midst of the emergency, this morning CMPC CEO Francisco Ruiz-Tagle went to south-central Chile to tour some of the areas affected by the fires and supervise the fieldwork carried out by the company’s teams to help put them out. The executive said that this week is expected to be challenging, since temperatures will again be elevated and, “Resources are in high demand. The fire brigades are experiencing fairly high levels of exhaustion, so it is especially important to lower the occurrence of fires. This has to do with two things. One is that we have to be very responsible, going to great lengths to prevent new fires from breaking out, such as not burning garbage or agricultural material, not using machinery that can produce excess heat, not making campfires, etc. But the more important thing is to call on the authorities to stop the intentional lighting of fires by rogue actors. There are clear signs that a high degree of intentionality is behind these fires. It will only be stopped with a strong security presence deployed in the territory, including the military and police force.”

Coordination with the Executive Level

The assistance and resources provided by the company have been offered in constant coordination with the executive branch, which is why on Sunday CMPC representatives met with the President of the Republic, Gabriel Boric, and the Minister of the General Secretariat of Government, Camila Vallejo to coordinate efforts and add more actors from the private world who can collaborate during the emergencies that are going on in south-central Chile as a result of the forest fires.

At the end of the meeting, Minister Vallejo said, “We need everyone’s solidarity, generosity and collaboration. We can all play a role in combating this serious situation. This includes neighbors taking precautions, business associations, and SMEs. It’s not just the State working through the municipalities. The private world can also play a role and that’s the main thing we’re bringing to the forefront today.”

President of the Chilean Wood Corporation (CORMA) Juan José Ugarte said, “The key method of dealing with this scenario is prevention. If more than a hundred fires continue to ignite daily, we’ll reach an uncontainable limit. This is why we want to congratulate the President for taking the initiative to decree a state of catastrophe and activate the armed forces in the area. We need territorial deployment and for the affected districts to have a curfew with restrictions on travel, the sale of drums of fuel and highway controls.”