SANTIAGO, Feb 9 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) — New groups of specialists from Mexico and Colombia arrived Wednesday in Chile to help contain the wildfires in the center-south of the country, which have already devastated more than 290,000 hectares.
The Mexican contingent of the National Forestry Commission, with experience in dealing with this type of emergency in Central America and Canada, will be assigned to the region of La Araucanía.
This group brings to 300 the number of experts sent by the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador to Chile to deal with this catastrophe, which left 24 dead, about two thousand injured and more than 1,500 houses burned.
Also in the last few hours, a cargo plane from Colombia arrived in national territory with 20 members of the brigade, four communications specialists, two paramedics and a coordinator.
Argentine and Spanish experts are also working in the disaster area, together with 5,600 Chilean firefighters.
The wave of forest fires affecting Chile is the deadliest in the last decade and the second largest since the one that occurred in the 2016-2017 season.
According to the latest balance there are 309 active outbreaks, of which 82 are being fought in the regions of Ñuble, Biobío, La Araucanía and Maule.
The fires also affected other infrastructure, such as schools, health centers and 145 telecommunications stations. The wildfires, which started last Thursday, threaten to spread to other regions due to high temperatures, drought and strong winds.
A Ten Tanker aircraft, with a capacity of 36,000 liters of water, was leased by the Government to extinguish the fires, but on the second day of operations it suffered a technical failure and will not be able to continue its work until next Saturday.
