A series of

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...

s burned across

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

during January 2017.

Impact

On January 27–28, a wildfire described as the worst in Chile's

modern history The modern era or the modern period is considered the current historical period of human history. It was originally applied to the history of Europe and Western history for events that came after the Middle Ages, often from around the year 1500, ...

killed at least 11 people, including five firefighters and destroyed the town of Santa Olga in the central

Maule Region The Maule Region (, ) is one of Chile's 16 first order administrative divisions. Its capital is Talca. The region derives its name from the Maule River which, running westward from the Andes, bisects the region and spans a basin of about 20,6 ...

, displacing thousands of people. In the two decades from 2000 to 2020, the 2017 Chile wildfires were the ones that impacted the largest area of protected areas and the largest number of protected areas in

Central Chile Central Chile (''Zona central'') is one of the five natural regions into which CORFO divided continental Chile in 1950. It is home to a majority of the Chilean population and includes the three largest metropolitan areas—Santiago, Valparaí ...

. In this regard only the wildfire seasons of 2009–2010 and 2019–2020 are comparable in the whole 2000–2020 period.

Reactions

On January 20, the Chilean government declared a

state of emergency A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state before, during, o ...

in response to the wildfires. Chilean President

Michelle Bachelet Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria (; born 29 September 1951) is a Chilean politician who served as President of Chile from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2014 to 2018, becoming the first woman to hold the presidency. She was re-elected in December ...

cancelled her planned visit to

Punta Cana Punta Cana is a resort town in the easternmost region of the Dominican Republic. It was politically incorporated as the "Verón–Punta Cana township" in 2006, and it is subject to the municipality of Higüey (La Altagracia Province). According ...

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

, for the fifth

CELAC The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) is a bloc of Latin American and Caribbean states, consisting of 33 countries, and has five official working languages. It is seen as an alternative to the Organization of American Stat ...

Summit on January 24–25 due to the wildfires. In late February 2022, five years after the fire Aída Baldini, manager of the wildfire division of the

National Forest Corporation The National Forest Corporation or CONAF (Corporación Nacional Forestal) is a Chilean State-owned private non-profit organization, through which the Chilean state contributes to the development and sustainable management of the country's forest ...

, declared that their budget to fight fires had increased five times.

International support

* had more than 130 firefighters in Chile at one point. * sent firefighting equipment and tools.Contribution of Countries
/ref> * sent two

MAFFS The Modular Airborne FireFighting System (MAFFS) is a self-contained unit used for aerial firefighting that can be loaded onto both military cargo transport Lockheed C-130 Hercules and Embraer C-390 Millennium, which then allows the aircraft to b ...

-equipped

C-130 Hercules The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed Corporation, Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 w ...

. * provided planes and helicopters. * provided economic support. * sent more than 20 firefighters. * The sent a team of eight to Santiago. * sent 69 firefighters. * has donated

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

215,000. * has pledged aid to Chile. * has pledged aid to Chile. * sent four people. * sent more than 20 firefighters. * sent 21 firefighters. * sent more than 20 firefighters. * sent 52 firefighters. * sent an

Ilyushin Il-76 The Ilyushin Il-76 (; NATO reporting name: Candid) is a multi-purpose, fixed-wing, four-engine turbofan strategic airlifter designed by the Soviet Union's Ilyushin design bureau as a commercial freighter in 1967, to replace the Antonov An-1 ...

and more than 20 firefighters. * provided economic aid. * sent 64 firefighters. * sent firefighting equipment and tools. * The has donated US$5 million. * The sent four specialists from the

U.S. Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands covering of land. The major divisions of the agency are the Chief's ...

, and a private company sent an Evergreen 747 Supertanker with a crew of 12. The United States has also contributed US$1,580,000. * sent 80 firefighters.

References

{{Reflist

wildfires A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...

Wildfires in Chile Chile wildfires 2017 disasters in South America January 2017 in South America

Impact

Reactions

International support

See also

References