Help in the midst of the ashes
President Gabriel Boric toured the central-southern area of Chile this Wednesday, the hardest hit by a wave of forest fires that does not let up. Their mission: spearhead the delivery and installation of emergency housing for those who have lost everything.
“What I want to convey to you is that help is arriving,” said the president from a rural area on the outskirts of Concepción, capital of Bío Bío. The region is the epicenter of this tragedy that began on January 17.
A balance that hurts
The official figures are harsh. At least 21 people have died and more than 330 are injured. Almost 3,800 homes have been completely razed, according to the latest bulletin from the National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (Senapred).
In Bío Bío alone, some 3,400 houses were destroyed, leaving almost 21,000 people affected. More than 420 are still housed in shelters set up by the authorities.
Specialized teams are still working to identify whether several charred bone remains correspond to more victims.
“We continue fighting fires, we continue to have active outbreaks,” Boric warned, calling for “responsibility” in the face of the majority of outbreaks caused by human action.
The government response and what is coming
During his visit—the fourth since the beginning of the emergency—Boric reported that more than 3,700 households are registered to receive financial bonuses. The payments, which already exceed 3,000 million pesos (about 3.5 million dollars), began on Saturday.
He also announced the instruction to “initiate the regularization of domain titles with urgent characteristics.” The objective: to give families certainty about the ownership of the land where their house was.
Although there are no official figures for the total cost, experts and the future Minister of Finance estimate that reconstruction could cost between 300 and 600 million dollars.
Beyond paper money, more than 50 modular homes have already been installed on the land. Affected farmers receive kits to feed animals and support to recover their production.
Thousands of firefighters, brigade members and volunteers continued working this Wednesday to control a dozen active fires. Half are in Bío Bío. The fight against the fire—and to rebuild—continues.
