Key Points
A Chile village shows the value of pre-fire mitigation...
- Villa Botania in Chile had long taken action for wildfire damage mitigation.
- During Chile’s horrendous February 2024 fires which killed over 131 people, Villa Botania experienced little damage even as the forests around it torched.
How disasters are being avoided
A terrible series of fires in early 2024...
Chile experienced one of the worst fire-related disasters in its history in early 2024. A series of huge forest fires burned from February 1 to 5 2024, leaving at least 131 people dead. Yet Villa Botania, near the city of Quilpué in central Chile, emerged from these fires as an interesting example to learn from. This little village was surrounded by flames but was almost unaffected, because residents were prepared. A community-led project had managed waste and controlled vegetation and weeds, to ensure there was less flammable material when a fire passed by. Villa Botania demonstrated that a climate-related hazard does not always end in a massive human disaster.
Text from The Conversation https://theconversation.com/in-chile-huge-wildfires-have-killed-at-least-131-people-but-one-village-was-almost-untouched-223034
Sources:
1. https://juntosprevenimos.cl
2. https://www.caritaschile.org/detalle.php?id=44951
3. https://www.caritaschile.org/detalle.php?id=44989
This case study has been produced in association with Yasna Palmeiro Silva.