[ARCHIVO] President Bachelet visits the Maule region affected by forest fires
The meeting was attended by the Regional Governor, Pablo Meza, the Governor of the Province of Talca, Armando Leppe, Brigadier General Javier Iturriaga, the Mayor of Empedrado, Manuel Báez, several council members, military personnel; as well as National Emergency Office and the National Forestry Service (CONAF) employees.
The President was updated on the situation in the municipality, where fire has destroyed two rural medical centers, 9 homes and over 16,000 hectares of land.
President Michelle Bachelet went this morning to the María Olga Vega School to monitor distribution of aid being channeled through the school by the National Institute of Agricultural Development (INDAP). She was accompanied by the Defense Minister, José Antonio Gómez and Governor of the Maule region, Pablo Meza. The President opened her remarks by saying “People are telling us about many different urgent issues and we are working on them, But soon other needs will arise—like those of people who have lost their livelihoods and their homes and so on. We are also working on those.”
Around 120 small-scale farmers in Empedrado have been affected and some 1,800 animals are in need of food. Nearly 1,600 bales were distributed today and more will be delivered in the coming days. INDAP is working closely with the municipality’s local development program office to face the disaster: “We are taking care of the animals. Many families here are small-scale farmers and, thus depend on their animals. Bales are being distributed because, after the pasture land burned, the animals were left without anything to eat and are dying,” she explained.
Regarding the aid scheduled to arrive in the coming hours, the President said: “The SuperTanker has been filled with the necessary elements in Pudahuel and will be taking off today. Air Force pilots will be accompanying the crew to show them which zones have been the most affected and where they should intervene first. So, we hope that will also be an important contribution. Four French exports arrived yesterday. Today, they are coming to see the area and identify what is needed. 58 Mexican specialist fire personnel are about to arrive. We are receiving different types of international support that we hope will enable us to do two things: first, contain and extinguish more active forest fires and second, give specialist fire personnel and firefighters—who have been working nonstop—a rest.”
To close her remarks, the President announced that there will be investigations and actions taken against those responsible for starting the fires. “This is a catastrophic situation; that is why we are taking all necessary measures. Given the number of fires, we cannot rule out the possibility that they were set intentionally. There have already been several arrests by the uniformed and investigative police and, if there are people capable of causing fires like this, we are also going to take other measures to put an end to it.”