Chile: Wildfires thrust the country into a state of extreme vulnerability
It’s not the first time wildfires erupt at Torres de Paine National Park. In 2005 a Czech tourist was held responsible for starting one accidentally. (Photo: Edward Vielmetti)
By SANDRO MAIRATA
Channel: Latin American Affairs
Three vast wildfires have burned about 90 square miles of forest in the southern Torres de Paine National Park, killing an elderly man who refused to evacuate and destroying more than 100 homes, reports say.
As the fires grew from local incident on Dec. 27, to issue of national concern, The New York Times reports that President Sebastián Piñera has been forced to publicly defend his administration’s handling of the issue, “rejecting accusations that it was slow in responding.” Chile is in a “situation of extreme vulnerability,” he said.
More than 500 people have been evacuated, and firefighters are struggling to contain the fires. According to an AP report, an Israeli tourist named Roter Singer, 23, has been detained on suspicion of causing the wildfires. Prosecutors claim some witnesses said he set fire to toilet paper after going to the bathroom, and then proved unable to put it out.
Singer has denied the charges, but if found guilty, he could be fined with $300 and would spend 60 days in prison.
The New York Times also reports that more than 750 firefighters from neighboring Argentina and Uruguay have been sent to help in the procedures. A red alert was declared just two hours after the fires erupted, but Piñera has acknowledged that the fire began in a zone of “very difficult access, with very difficult topography and additionally with conditions of intense winds.”
