December 2022 in Chile was marked by record hot temperatures, with wildfires burning around the capital city of Santiago and producing persistent smoke and public health impacts. On December 22, a fire in a forested canyon of Tranque Sur burned into the coastal resort city of Viña Del Mar (north of Valparaiso), resulting in one death, many injured, and more than 100 homes destroyed. Chile’s president declared a state of emergency and catastrophe. A week later and 800 kilometers (500 miles) south of Viña Del Mar, firefighters responded to a fire in the Galvarino commune where a single-engine air tanker crashed on December 31, killing the pilot, Luis Sevillano Moreno, a Spanish national.
For the early months of 2023, the forecast for Chile continues for hot, dry conditions.
A Chilean photojournalist, Carlos Vera Mancilla, was at Viña Del Mar as the fire was being controlled. Vera Mancilla has photographed many wildfires and their impacts, including a photo series in the January-February 2017 issue of Wildfire Magazine (https://www.iawfonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/26.1-Jan-Feb-2017-Wildfire-Final-Web-1.pdf) and excerpted below. One of his earlier photographs, from the 2016 protests in Santiago organized by relatives of the “disappeared”, gained acclaim as an image that conveyed the changing state of democracy in his country: https://www.cnn.com/2016/09/14/americas/chile-girl-protest-photo/index.html.
Here is what he witnessed in 2022 in Viña Del Mar, with captions drawn from his notes.
+
Photos of fire damages from January 2017 in Valparaiso, Chile, by Carlos Vera Mancilla, from the January-February 2017 issue of Wildfire Magazine.
