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Chillán Approves Municipal Emergency Plan Ahead of Anticipated Complex Wildfire Season

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The Municipality of Chillán has approved the new Municipal Emergency Plan, becoming one of the 27 communes in the country to have a planning tool to prevent contingencies that endanger human life, property, and the ecosystem.

The mayor of Chillán, Camilo Benavente, endorsed the regulatory framework during a session that also updated the Municipal Emergency Committee, composed of representatives from state entities and the council.

The municipal authority stated that this approval comes ahead of a summer season that, according to experts, is predicted to be "complex" for wildfire development due to expected high temperatures.

"What we did was advance in organizing the resources we will need, the necessary coordination and management to properly address this summer, which, in theory, is shaping up to be quite challenging," emphasized the mayor.

The new Municipal Emergency Plan aims, among multiple objectives, "to protect the lives, integrity, and well-being of the commune's population in the face of emergencies arising from any type of threat."

Additionally, it addresses issues related to the coordination of the Disaster Risk Management Committee (Cogrid), communication and information during emergencies, and the damage and needs assessment system.

Víctor Fernández, Director of Emergencies for the Municipality of Chillán, highlighted: "Chillán is one of the few communes in the country with these emergency preparedness and planning tools. Nationally, Chillán is among the 29 communes that would be complying with all these processes, and this obviously gives us relative peace of mind regarding the upcoming summer season."

Disaster risk reduction is a tool to support sustainable development, aimed at identifying and reducing vulnerabilities, as well as improving the capacities of the population and the territory in harmony with the environment. It seeks to mitigate potential losses and setbacks in local socioeconomic development caused by the activation of a threat.

Measures to Date

So far, the Municipality of Chillán has carried out a campaign to create firebreaks in the commune, totaling over 400,000 square meters of these protective trails around the capital and in rural areas.

The new director of the Community Development Directorate (Dideco), Alejandra Martínez, noted: "We have voted on our plan, updated it, all stakeholders were present, and in the case of Dideco, we have reviewed our responsibilities in this matter and how we will respond to residents during emergencies."

Lautaro Arias Berrocal, the newly appointed director of Public Safety and Municipal Inspection, stressed that "as members of the Municipal Committee, we are ready to provide any assistance. We are working on this, which is why these coordination efforts and collaboration with other institutions, such as the Fire Department and Conaf, are crucial to prevent incidents that could affect our rural and urban communities."

The Municipality of Chillán is preparing to avoid situations like those in 2023, when a large-scale fire affected extensive areas of Chillán and Chillán Viejo along the communal borders.

Representatives from Conaf present at the meeting emphasized that prevention is key, as tackling multiple fire outbreaks simultaneously in the region will make it difficult for Ñuble's firefighters to handle each incident.

Source:La Discusión