On February 2, 2024, the megafire broke out in the Valparaíso Region, which was concentrated in the communes of Viña del Mar, Quilpué, Limache and Villa Alemana, and was classified by President Gabriel Boric as “the biggest tragedy since the 2010 earthquake”.
The flames started in the vicinity of Lake Peñuelas, near Route 68 that connects Santiago with the Fifth Region. It quickly became uncontrollable due to multiple fire outbreaks.
The fire destroyed pastures, forests, industries and around 6,974 homesaccording to figures from the National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (Senapred).
After an arduous deployment of firefighters and volunteers from the National Forestry Corporation (Conaf) – among other aid -, on February 4, it was possible to control the fire sources that burned an area of 8,651 hectaresaffecting at least 20.822 personas.
As a result, the incident has claimed, to date, the lives of 134 personasas confirmed by the Legal Medical Service (SML), an entity that is still identifying the bodies of the victims.
Tragedy from the camps
According to the estimate of the sixth report of “2024 fire impact by neighborhoods and camps” of Viña del Mar, until February 10, there are 4.777 the affected roofs in the commune, of them 2.175 They are at the camp level, with the precarious settlements belonging to the Miraflores and Achupallas sectors being the most affected.
Among the hills that border the Viña del Mar International Road and on the margins of the city’s urban planning, the camp is located Los Almendros Bin the area of whereabouts 10 of Achupallas.
More than 60 families reside on Contulmo Street alone, whose efforts and work of a lifetime were reduced to ashes last Friday, February 2.
Burned houses in Achupallas. Credits: Manuel Lema Olguín, Agencia Uno.
The Housing Committee of Los Almendros B, It is located on a property that is currently owned by the Housing and Urbanization Service (Serviu), and although it was in the process of regularizing the land, they have been waiting for years for a response from the authorities to be able to legally establish itself.
Cecilia Estay Ossa, President of the Los Almendros B Housing Committeeis 66 years old, of which 38 he has lived in the place. “We had almost ready the purchase of the land. Someone needed to come and disaffect them. We have been waiting for more than six years for them to come from the Department of Works, the Serviu, Bienes Nacionales (BB.NN). “It is a terrible delay,” she says.
So far, the only help that has come from the Government is monetary. Cecilia states that her family of seven members have received a bonus of $1,500,000 for major damage, which, due to the severity of the damage caused by the fire, is insufficient when it comes to habitability. “What are you going to buy with a voucher? if cement, sand, egg (stone) and wood are super expensive”comments.
In this way, the residents of Los Almendros, not having a property title, are left out of the housing aid of the Government’s Recovery and Early Aid Plan, so they have not received emergency housing, which has them sleeping in tents in the same place where their homes once stood.
Blue tents and awnings to protect yourself from the drizzle. Credits: Manuel Lema Olguín, Agencia Uno.
“We are terribly abandoned”
In Los Almendros, the fire arrived around 5:30 p.m. on Friday, February 2. Lisette RamosCecilia’s neighbor and cousin, says that she was trapped inside her house during the emergency. “I couldn’t get out, the heat kind of twisted the iron and jammed the door.”.
She thanks a neighbor for his life who remembered that she was alone and went to open the locked door to escape. They were the last two people left to leave the Contulmo passage. “Fortunately, my cousin was saved.”says Cecilia.
However, they comment that the passage is a dead end street and unfortunately, there was an elderly woman who did not manage to escape, she was alone and her gate was locked, so she died inside her house.
In Villa Arauco, near Los Almendros, a woman was locked up to save her daughter. Her mother moved the bars of the window and took her daughter out of it, but she could not get out of it, she did not fall through the opening of the bars. “She was burned to death and meanwhile her daughter was watching her burn.” they count.
”Here there was no evacuation as such. Each one went out as best they could. There were no evacuation routes and since it was a dead end street we couldn’t go anywhere, just keep going up because The passage was burning on both sides.”says the leader.
“We also didn’t have help from the Fire Department, because they were putting out where the fire started, for Las Palmas, Placillas, Peñuelas,” says the president of the committee.
The loss in Los Almendros was total; many residents, in addition to losing their homes, lost their sources of work. “The lathe shop was completely burned, the neighbor mechanic, who earned his money fixing cars, had four vehicles that were not his own burned.”
Burned cars in Achupallas. Credits: Manuel Lema Olguín, Agencia Uno.
“There is nothing. Imagine, the chuzos, the shovels, everything melted. That’s why we are stopped, we don’t have tools,” explains Cecilia.
She denounces that help has not reached Contulmo. “They need to go through the passage, check what people need on Pablo de Rokha, Rubén Darío, Collipulli streets. Help is not coming. We are terribly abandoned”.
With great regret, she points out that from the municipality they have only received some cleaning supplies, merchandise and water. Help that does not address the main needs of the neighbors. “The municipality has not given us anything like a roof, a prefabricated house, help, that is, at least half a water. Here almost everyone is living on the streets,” she laments.
Asked about aid to inhabitants of land occupations, René Lous (DC), councilor of Viña del Mar, hopes that “both the municipality, the Minvu, BB.NN, and the different public organizations with influence on the matter, coordinate their respective efforts and roles to achieve an adequate, quick and legal solution.” for these families.”
For his part, the also councilor of Viña del Mar, Alejandro Aguilera (CS), comments that “I am of the idea that we must help, but here there are legal obstacles that directly prevent that.” This, since the aid that families who are outside the Recovery and Early Aid Plan will receive have not yet been defined.
“In any case, many communities are not going to wait for action from the State, and in fact they are already rebuilding their houses in the same places they had before the fire, in several of which they should not build because they are considered risk areas.” , assures Lues.
With this, the militant councilor of the Christian Democracy adds that the State does not have the institutional strength, nor the authorities, the sufficient leadership to carry out urban planning of the city after a catastrophe of this magnitude.
At the moment, the reconstruction work is still uncertain. “Moreover now the cold is coming, this is for a while, finally, they should bring some rolls of nylon to be able to protect the tents, so that they do not get wet,” demands the president of Los Almendros.
Credits: Manuel Lema Olguín, Agencia Uno.
“I have not seen municipalities here in the area”
In the absence of concrete help from the communal authority and government level, volunteering is one of the most important supports that has materialized in the affected areas. Whether in the removal of debris, the reconstruction of houses and even emotional support, volunteers have become essential accompaniment in sectors unprotected by the State.
Lilian Valdés, Sebastián Cifuentes and Jennifer Vásquezare Santiago natives belonging to the “Volunteering Soul of Chile”an organization that has more than 100 people, about 40 of them, who have been deployed directly in the areas of Achupallas, Villa Independencia, Monte Sinaí and El Olivar, the most affected sectors.
“The group emerged spontaneously through social networks,” highlights Lilian, who works as a midwife. “It is also important to say that they are not people from the municipality or anything like that, but that We are people of the people, helping the people“adds Jennifer, who comes from the Lo Prado commune.
Volunteers in debris removal work. Credits: @voluntariadoalmadechile.
According to Sebastián’s experience, the help that exists is only from volunteers who came to the area. “The little hands that work here are volunteers who come with the desire to help, but on site“No, the municipality and the government helping people here,” says Cifuentes, who resides in the commune of El Bosque.
“You can see the difference between the municipality and the Government, which only approach the most central parts. They don’t go up to these parts. Because? Because they are shots. But they don’t stop to think that they have been living here almost their entire lives. There are children, there are adolescents who have been born in these shots,” the volunteers point out.
Sebastián maintains that the greatest help comes from the volunteers. “Even on the issue of trucks, they are private trucks or businessmen, people who have had their SMEs, have come to help and contribute their grain of sand. I have not seen municipalities here in the area“The help has been direct from the same people.”
Volunteers in debris removal work. Credits: Sebastián Cifuentes.
In addition to housing uncertainty, another latent fear among the residents of Los Almendros is regarding security. During the nights they have seen individuals prowling the grounds and they fear that they will try to take over the sites. “There is no police here. The other night the boys (volunteers) went to scare away some guys who were hanging around,” explains Cecilia.The volunteers are sleeping in tents like the neighbors. Lisett Ramos has offered her site so they can camp. “I feel much safer with them here”, he comments. Since through volunteering, they have also organized themselves to make nightly rounds and monitor the sector.
“What remains after the fire has to be better than it was”
After the “Together Chile Rises” campaign, an amount of $6.234.622.441where 50% is destined for reconstruction through Techo Chile, 25% for food and hygiene kits by Movidos x Chile and the remaining 25%, for habitability of homes by Hogar de Cristo.
From this foundation, they point out that the houses have a habitability kit, which includes furniture, kitchen utensils and elements to turn them into homes. “What we want to do is coordinate the aid offered by the State and reach the people who need it,” says the general chaplain of Hogar de Cristo, José Francisco Yuraszeck.
Likewise, Yuraszeck adds that “just financial and material help is not enough, but we also began to implement, just like last year in the fires, psycho-social support work with a team of social workers, psychologists, etc. ”.
Precisely, Cecilia Estay comments that so far no one has approached them to offer psychological help. “I don’t sleep at night, I go to bed at 03:00 and at 05:00 I’m awake again. “I dream that my children are burning and I wake up.”
This is why the importance of psycho-social support provided by a team of social workers and psychologists. “Because of the trauma of losing your home, your memories, your pets, having lost a loved one or not finding someone who died, but who is burned and their remains can be found,” says the chaplain.
A vision shared by Lilian Valdés, who points out that “I know that the help may be delayed, but they should plan for it. Let multidisciplinary teams be formed here, let there be psychologists, because people are going to need help. There are many children. “Imagine the trauma it must cause to a child, losing their home.”
The Valparaíso Region is one of the regions that historically has the most camps and problems of housing deficit and overcrowding. These fires exacerbate this problem. In relation to this, the chaplain assured that “What remains after the fire has to be better than it was” .
Cecilia Estay also comments that they urgently need to close the sites. “The second most urgent thing is to have half a water. We have two people in their eighties, we need a half water for them. We have a person who is going to be discharged from the hospital. “There are a lot of people on this street who urgently need a roof over their heads.”
Both neighbors and volunteers agree that the most urgent thing is to rebuild “because then March and the cold are coming. Here it is a coastal area and the trough drops a lot in the mornings. The estuary falls very hard. There are children, elderly people,” the volunteers point out.
To provide support to the affected schoolchildren, volunteers began a collection campaign. “The collection place to collect school supplies has already been found. So we hope it works well.”