The 2025-2026 wildfire season in the Ñuble Region has been characterized by a higher number of fires and thousands of hectares razed, surpassing the 2024-2025 period. In detail, this season has seen 301 wildfires, a 19% increase from the previous one, and an impact of 9,453 hectares, which, compared to the last period, represents a 330% increase in burned area.
January has so far been the most critical month, with a total of 118 fires that consumed 8,849 hectares, and a major emergency caused by simultaneous and complex-to-combat hotspots, affecting communes such as Ránquil, San Nicolás, San Carlos, Bulnes, Quillón, Portezuelo, and Trehuaco, where intense flames destroyed everything in their path: more than 300 homes, warehouses, businesses, vineyards, fields, even claiming one life and leaving a woman with serious injuries from burns.
The Ñuble Regional Prosecutor's Office instructed the police forces, both Carabineros and the Investigative Police (PDI), to investigate the causes that originated these disasters and those responsible.
"Crimes of this nature, due to their characteristics, are difficult to investigate, but we increasingly have more resources, such as the operational start, last June, of the Carabineros Ñuble Criminalistics Laboratory (Labocar), or the arrival of the PDI's Environmental Crimes Investigative Brigade (Bidema), which has jurisdiction in our region and investigates wildfires that may affect national reserves such as the Ñuble National Reserve and the Los Huemules de Niblinto National Reserve in our region. We have also held coordination meetings with Corma, in order to facilitate obtaining the necessary evidence for the investigation of this type of illegal activities," stated Regional Prosecutor Nayalet Mansilla.
In January alone, Carabineros has arrested 21 people for their responsibility in wildfires, whether for burning grasslands, using tools or machinery, burning garbage, or carrying out agricultural tasks that ignited fire hotspots.
Formally Charged
Although the Regional Prosecutor's Office did not detail how many investigations are ongoing for fire-related crimes, it reported that in this year 2026, five people have been formally charged for crimes under the Forest Law (forest fire and illicit use of fire), and 52 cases have been filed for the same crimes.
The first of these formal charges occurred on January 6th, against a 62-year-old man being investigated for the crime of intentional grassland fire in the commune of Chillán, as he allegedly set fire to brush on a vacant lot at the intersection of Simón Bolívar and Aconcagua streets on two occasions. A neighbor reportedly saw the accused fleeing the scene on a bicycle. The investigation is being conducted by Labocar Ñuble.
Subsequently, on January 22nd, the Ñuble Prosecutor's Office formally charged an investigation for the crime of negligent forest fire, contemplated in article 22 TER of the Forest Law, against an 83-year-old man, who was arrested by Carabineros after causing a fire hotspot on his plot located in the rural sector of Puyaral, in San Nicolás. According to the background, the elderly man cut firewood with a chainsaw on his property, an action that generated sparks which ignited grasslands and firewood, burning an area of 20 square meters. The prosecutor's office explained that the accused acted negligently, considering that the Ñuble Region is under a Red Alert and in a State of Catastrophe.
Two days later, an investigation was formally charged for the crime of negligent forest fire, contemplated in article 22 TER of the Forest Law, against two men in the commune of Cobquecura, who were arrested by Carabineros after causing, through their careless action, a fire hotspot. The prosecutor's office instructed Labocar to carry out procedures, a report which concluded that the accused were working with an electric angle grinder to cut iron, whose sparks reached grasslands generating a fire that affected an area of 20 square meters. The prosecutor's office specified that the accused acted recklessly, within the framework of the Red Alert and the State of Catastrophe declared in the region.
And this week, on January 28th, the prosecutor's office formally charged an investigation for the crime of negligent forest fire against a 59-year-old defendant in Chillán Viejo, after being apprehended for causing, through his reckless action, a fire hotspot on the property he looks after. The man maintained an illegal connection to the power grid in the house he inhabits in the San Pedro hamlet sector, whose wiring caused a short circuit and triggered a grassland fire on a third party's property. The inquiries for this case are handled by the PDI.
Other Ongoing Investigations
Although for the multiple wildfires that spread for over 12 days and triggered the recent contingency in the region there are still no arrests, investigations are advancing to clarify how the flames originated. In the case of the hotspots that occurred in San Nicolás and Quillón, they could be due to possible electrical negligence, stemming from a lack of care or non-compliance with safety regulations in installations or the use of electrical systems. Both inquiries are under the responsibility of the PDI's Wildfire Task Force.
Regarding the disaster that started on January 17th in the El Culbén sector, commune of Quillón, and extended to the Libuy sector, in the commune of Bulnes, where a 63-year-old man died, the lead prosecutor for wildfire investigations in Ñuble, Rolando Canahuate Ronda, ruled out intentionality and pointed to the hypothesis of a tree falling on the power line, which caused cables to fall to the ground and sparks that started the fire, affecting an area of 1,500 hectares.
Meanwhile, the fire called "Perales Biobío", which occurred on January 13th in Ránquil and spread to Portezuelo and Trehuaco, razing over 5,500 hectares, is being investigated by the Carabineros Criminalistics Laboratory (Labocar).
PDI Task Force
Until last year, the Investigative Police (PDI) maintained a Preferential Investigation Group (GIP) for wildfires in the Ñuble Region, which was elevated to the rank of a Task Force, and since December it has been deployed to investigate the occurrence of these events.
This Wildfire Task Force has received 48 orders to investigate fires during the 2025-2026 season, of which 38 correspond to the month of January.
Commissioner Ernesto Gaete Salgado, in charge of this Wildfire Task Force in Ñuble, commented that the main causes behind these disasters are negligence and accidental actions.
"Almost all wildfires are caused by human intervention; except for natural exceptions that -for example- the recent thunderstorm in Ñuble left. In that context, it is important to note that human intervention does not necessarily mean there is intentionality in the occurrence of wildfires; there is a high component of negligence, due to risky behaviors by people that result in wildfires," he explained.
The PDI officer added that "investigations remain ongoing and it is important to highlight the joint work with other institutions for these to succeed: the Public Prosecutor's Office, Conaf, Carabineros, Firefighters, among others. Faced with this emergency, each organization, including private ones, plays an essential role, due to the severe damage that exists from a human point of view, but also to the environment."
For the investigation of wildfires, the PDI has deployed a significant amount of resources, considering the support of detectives from different regions who have assisted in Ñuble, with drones, an institutional helicopter; in addition to expert reports from various specialties, and also the Environmental Crimes Investigative Brigade (Bidema), which started operations in the city of Tomé (Biobío Region), but also maintains jurisdiction in this area.
During the emergency, furthermore, the detectives assisted in the evacuation of the affected population in different sectors, "mainly in the provinces of Diguillín and Itata, counting to date with one deceased person, corresponding to a man who allegedly chose not to flee once the evacuation alert was decreed in the Libuy sector, commune of Bulnes. For this, the multidisciplinary team of detectives has been relevant, thus being able to address different aspects of the catastrophe."
"During the State of Catastrophe, moreover, the Ñuble Police Region as a whole has been deployed to various points affected by the wildfires, supporting from the first moment with evacuation, as well as in the practice of investigative procedures to expedite these processes," said Commissioner Ernesto Gaete.
Labocar
The Labocar Ñuble Criminalistics Section highlighted that they remain on permanent alert and conducting various forensic examinations to provide evidence for wildfire investigations throughout the region, in coordination with the Public Prosecutor's Office, a crucial process to determine the origin, cause, and prompt identification of the person or persons responsible for the fire.
"This methodological, disciplined, and silent work focuses on determining the different types of causes, whether natural, accidental, provoked or intentional, due to chemical reactions or those of an undetermined origin, bearing in mind the frequent occurrence of this type of fire, which although could be pointed out as a general cause of the accidental type, have a direct occurrence with negligence in the use of different electrical or battery-powered tools, agricultural machinery, vehicles and in general any appliance, device or similar that can generate sparks by mechanical action, shearing, friction against other supports or materials, internal defects of the same, which under conditions of high temperatures, increased winds and the sufficient and excessive release of moisture from natural combustible materials, such as grasses, dry leaves, brush, etc., initiate, propagate and trigger a wildfire," explained the head of the Ñuble Criminalistics Section (Labocar), Captain Claudio Vásquez.
He added that "the forensic examinations focus on identifying the area of origin of the fire and the heat source that came into contact with the first combustible material, with the aim that the Public Prosecutor's Office investigation can identify those responsible and carry out criminal prosecution."
"The Labocar Ñuble Section has taken on this task with special dedication, contributing the findings made and classifying the specific cause that it is possible to arrive at, which has allowed generating formal charges against defendants," he stated.
Captain Vásquez commented and at the same time recommended to the community that a wildfire is by definition a fire that burns out of control, and that its behavior under conditions unfavorable to humans and the environment is erratic, with rapid advancement and propagation, due to factors and variables that are often difficult to control, especially wind, temperature, and humidity. It seriously affects not only humans with loss of lives and property, but directly our endemic flora and fauna, destroying ecosystems that are difficult to recover.
"For this reason, we earnestly ask to respect the regulations and decrees, which call for prevention, prohibiting the use and handling of fire in any of its forms, complying with the indicated hours and dates, understanding the scope of the imminent and cross-cutting risk that this entails, and also being able collectively and individually to carry out palliative and anticipatory measures, such as cleaning strips, yards, surroundings that can in some way eliminate the continuity and availability of combustible materials, but above all to refrain from using fire in any of its forms, in all places and rural environments or those that maintain vegetation," he concluded.
Source:La Discusión
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