2017 Chile wildfires | |
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![]() Satellite image of the fires, captured by NASA on January 25, 2017. | |
Location | ![]() |
Statistics | |
Total fires | 5,274 [1] |
Total area | 1,408,988 acres (5,702 km2) [1] |
Buildings destroyed | 1000+ |
Deaths | 11 |
A series of wildfires burned across Chile during January 2017.
On January 27–28, a wildfire described as the worst in Chile's modern history killed at least 11 people, including five firefighters and destroyed the town of Santa Olga in the central Maule Region, displacing thousands of people. [2] [3]
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. [4] In this regard only the wildfire seasons of 2009–2010 and 2019–2020 are comparable in the whole 2000–2020 period. [4]
On January 20, the Chilean government declared a state of emergency in response to the wildfires. [5]
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet cancelled her planned visit to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, for the fifth CELAC Summit on January 24–25 due to the wildfires. [6]
In late February 2022, five years after the fire Aída Baldini, manager of the wildfire division of the National Forest Corporation, declared that their budget to fight fires had increased five times. [7]
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