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Expert on Wildfires, Ramón Figueroa: "If you do social prevention, you will generate a culture over time"
The expert on wildfires, Ramón Figueroa, addressed the importance of prevention, in light of the new season of fire risk that is approaching.
According to the Deputy Manager of Fire Prevention and Protection at Empresas Arauco, Chile is in debt in this matter, as he stated in an interview with SABES.
"If you do social prevention, especially from a young age, you will generate a culture in children over time. It's the same as what happens today with the issue of littering, environmental care," Figueroa began by pointing out, who emphasized that prevention "works."
"The most palpable example is when neighbors group together, for instance, the community prevention network, and work with a mayor committed to the issue. They are the perfect formula; they reduce occurrence to unsuspected levels. There are committees that were elected due to high occurrence and over the years have drastically reduced it, even having zero occurrence in recent years," exemplified the expert.
"Fire prevention is indeed the formula"
Ramón Figueroa also argued that "we must not overlook the fact that there is a significant percentage of fires that are negligent, meaning, people who do not intend to cause the fire but cause it by carelessness, improper handling of fire or a heat source."
"But then there is the other type, which are intentional ones," he continued. "Sometimes things get confused and they are totally different. An intentional fire is when there is malice, when there is an intention to cause harm to someone, a neighbor, due to a conflict, etc. And that must be separated."
However, he emphasized that "social prevention is indeed the formula, just as fuel management is also an important preventive formula, very necessary in our region."
"There is always a lot of talk about firefighting, and firefighting only minimizes loss and damage, but in Chile, a lot of money has been invested in firefighting," asserted the president of the Forest Protection Department of Corma.
Source:Sabes
