Rescue teams are busy fanning out throughout Chile’s central and southern regions to combat fires that have overrun at least 1,000,000 acres and killed at least 11. And the South American country has also begun identifying and bringing in suspects, pointing its finger at 43 people for playing a role in the spreading of the flames.
Local media captured the arrest and confession of one of the suspect, who acknowledged starting fires from garbage.
If convicted, the arsonists face up to 20 years behind bars.
There are still roughly 127 active forest fires still in Chile, and about a half are under control, according to government officials.
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, who has been publicly accosted byChileans over the official response, spoke to the media about the efforts to bring in guilty parties.
“And if this was intentional in some of the areas of the fires, and if we are sure this was intentional, we are going to pursue the responsible parties to the end. We have arrested 43 from the 36 cases we are investigating. Not all were intentional fires, some were, as I have said on other occasions, but were the result of negligence. But it’s being investigated and the responsible parties will be pursued to the end,” she said from Santiago.
Bachelet made clear she doesn’t believe any foreign actors played any role in the fires.
A woman from the Bio-Bio region, who was not named in reports, has been accused of starting fires in the sector of El Roble. She acknowledged having left out crumpled rubbish and lighting it, without providing her motive. Her arrest and hearing were caught on camera. She is said to suffer from mental disturbances, according to Chilean media reports.
The judge said the investigation is to be concluded in four months.
More than 10,000 people are thought to be involved in the effort to combat the flames. Some 264 arrived Saturday from abroad, including from Europe.
“We are going right now to the Bio-Bio region. And I understand that yes, because it’s been coordinated so that we have at our disposition a plane from the Chilean Air Force.” said Vicente Franco, the chief of 64 Spanish brigadiers.
“We know that the fires are large, especially in the region of O’Higgins, which is what has been reviewed first and where the emphasis will be at first and where (the fires) are encroaching on forests area as much as on commercial sites and inhabitants,” said a leader of 69 French brigadiers on hand.
Many homes in O’Higgins among other sites remain under threat.
Other environmental factors are said to be playing a role as well, as winds in the badly affected Bio-Bio have moved the fires to the northern party of the region.
Chile, along the seismically-active Pacific Rim, is no stranger to natural disasters. It is often walloped by earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and strong storms.
As a result, its emergency response teams, building codes and residents are usually well-prepared to confront such situations. But the scale of this season’s fires have overwhelmed authorities.
The fires have been burning for two weeks.
(Reuters)
