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Conaf Claims That in Some Areas of La Araucanía, Firefighters Cannot "Enter" to Combat Forest Fires

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The national director of the National Forestry Corporation (Conaf), Aida Baldini, spoke on La Tercera's streaming program, Desde La Redacción, about the forest fires affecting the La Araucanía Region. She indicated that while there are no "major problems," there are sectors where "entry is definitively not possible."

Baldini was asked about the shots fired at the helicopter combating the fires in the commune of Collipulli and stated that two attacks on such aircraft had been detected. "Both in La Araucanía—one belonged to, was leased by a forestry company, and the one that suffered an attack was leased by Conaf," she detailed.

The director reflected that "it is very complex when they attack a helicopter because these are machines that are crucial at that moment to stop the advance of the fire, which often endangers homes and, above all, lives."

Along these lines, Baldini explained, "We have different protocols in La Araucanía. In some sectors, we communicate with the people who live there, with the residents, with the communities. They are informed that we will enter to fight the fire, but generally, I wouldn’t say there are major problems. However, in some areas, entry is definitively not possible—that is a reality."

"We cannot enter, for example. We recently had issues near Collipulli where we couldn’t send ground personnel to where we could actually stop the fire because the use of aircraft alone is not enough to say we can control a fire just with aerial means. A fire is under control when we’ve established a perimeter line, done either with machinery or the work of firefighters," she added.

Likewise, the Conaf director noted that this "has been going on for years" and that over time, they have adopted different practices. "In some areas, we can bring in machinery; in others, it’s the opposite—we can only send firefighters. In others, we can only conduct drops with planes. It’s already part of the work of how we focus and plan to achieve fire control in complex zones," she exemplified.

Regarding this, Baldini asserted that as an entity, they would never expose firefighters and brigade members to danger, noting that they have sometimes heard gunshots in the air, which is why they avoid entering those areas. "We have not suffered direct attacks from gunfire—I want to make that clear—only shots in the air, but that is already a sign that we cannot expose our people," she stated.

Source:La Tercera