As of this writing, the death toll exceeds 130, with over 15,000 homes affected by the megafires in Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, and Quilpué, which struck Chile in early February 2024. Above all, this tragedy forces us to once again confront the lack of urban planning and to continue improving prevention, evacuation, and warning systems. These events also demand—once again—that we outline a diagnosis and concrete courses of action toward necessary adaptation.
Despite warnings, building on hills and slopes—whether condoned by permissive authorities or not—has led to thousands of properties being built within the wildland-urban interface, outside regular planning frameworks, over the last few decades. Today, under the new pressures of climate change, these are areas where dry vegetation and high-speed winds facilitate the spread of flames, exacerbated by the dangerous addition of high temperatures. This pattern has recurred systematically, from the lessons of the 1906 earthquake and urban fire to the previous major fire of 2014, and again in 2019 and 2022. Each has left a trail of lost lives and property, while triggering some regulatory modernizations that, though initiated, remain insufficient.
In the face of this new failure in planning and prevention, how should we face upcoming emergencies? Establishing mandatory fire retardant breaks, inspected by technical agencies along the boundaries between urban areas and rural sectors, is key.
