In Chile, huge wildfires have killed at least 131 people – but one village was almost untouched

• Existing diseases have been exacerbated by service interruptions, and people have lost their homes and livelihoods.
• It is a disaster mainly caused by our decisions and lack of preparation to deal with a more extreme climate hazard.
• As an academic disaster researcher from Chile, I think there are lessons we can learn from these fires.

Fire-prone conditions

• Meteorological conditions have made Chile very prone to fires this summer, especially in this long-and-thin country’s central region, where it is warm enough for fires yet wet enough for there to be vegetation to burn.
• Conditions were dry on top of a longer-term mega-drought, and relative humidity was low.
• It is very likely that these conditions have been influenced by El Niño, on top of human-induced climate change.

Formula for a (not natural) perfect disaster

• This is exactly what happened in Chile: a deadly combination of an extreme climate hazard and inadequate social preparation.
• Several antennas were affected by the fires and not properly working, so many people did not receive the message on time.
• This led to traffic jams and bottlenecks, some of which became engulfed in the middle of the fires.

Climate-related hazards shouldn’t turn disastrous

• However, the human health risks this poses can be reduced by adequate preparedness and response plans.
• Villa Botania, near the city of Quilpué in central Chile, emerged from these fires as an interesting example to learn from.
• This can save lives, as shown by the success since the 1970s of anti-seismic building regulations in this earthquake-prone country.

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Yasna Palmeiro Silva does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.