A team of Italian experts arrived this Monday in the region of La Araucanía, in southern Chile, to investigate the origin of the fires that have affected the country for more than two weeks, leaving 25 dead and more than 400,000 hectares burned.
“Here they are going to do a job of advising the Carabineros, the Investigative Police and the Public Ministry, they are going to go to different meetings,” said the presidential delegate, José Montalva, after the first meeting.
This is a group of expert specialists in accidents from the Italian Carabinieri who have already toured different areas of Ñuble and Biobío, two of the regions most affected by the accidents.
European officials will be deployed throughout La Araucanía “and certain sectors where there have been fires in the region to be able to shed light on how these fires started, collaborate with the people in charge of the investigation,” Montalva explained.
“They are going to go to the places where there was more damage and where there are also doubts about how the fires started (…) the idea is that they can have a more or less complex picture of the region, so with their knowledge, with their abilities to give and transfer that experience to our managers of leading this investigation”, he added.
Over the weekend, the Chilean government warned that the fires in Biobío flared up again with force and acknowledged “concern”, while the flames advanced towards populated areas.
The Executive reported that around 25% of the fires registered so far in 2023 have been intentional, according to data provided by the head of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, based on evaluations carried out by the National Forestry Corporation (Conaf), which to date has investigated 600 claims in 2023.
During the last two weeks, more than 7,000 people have been affected during the emergency, described as one of the worst catastrophes suffered by the country in terms of forest fires.
Until now, more than 430,000 hectares have been consumed by the llamas, 200,000 of them registered in the Biobío region in the southern part of the country.
