NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

h/t Paul Kolk

Blame it on climate change!

The Valparaíso region of Chile is wealthy and densely populated, but last Friday there was little to warn residents living in the green hills and valleys that a firestorm packing the power of several hydrogen bombs was to hit.  

Fabiola Camilla, a 31-year-old mother of two, watched her seven-year-old daughter playing at her birthday party. She recalled nothing out of the ordinary, other than the warm, dry weather the currents of El Niño had brought to an area known locally as the Jewel of the Pacific.

There was also a fierce wind, said Misael Vergara Tapia, a resident of the neighbouring village of Achupallas. “A hot wind … a wind we had never felt before.”

From this idyll erupted hell. Moments later, fire was leaping from house to house, setting entire neighbourhoods ablaze and threatening the lives of thousands. “It was like a tornado of fire,” said Misael, 67. “In five minutes, you couldn’t see more than half a metre in front of you. Everyone was shouting, calling for their family. People died on the streets, in their cars.”

The wildfire is the worst disaster to hit Chile for more than a decade. At least 131 people have died, with a further 370 still missing. The hillside neighbourhoods it ripped through, destroying more 15,000 homes, are now a scorched wasteland of broken cement and steel.

Firestorms of this magnitude are a terrifying phenomenon, moving so fast and with such energy that they can kill people hundreds of metres away through radiant heat alone. But it is not unique.

Hawaii, California, France, Portugal, Canada, Greece and Australia have all been hit in recent years. In July 2022, when temperatures reached 40C for the first time in the UK, the residents of Wennington in east London witnessed nearly 20 houses burn down in a matter of minutes. The spark was a compost heap that had spontaneously combusted.

Experts are now asking: What’s causing these infernos? And is there anything that can be done to stop them?

Chile’s forest fire, like most, was preceded by unusually high temperatures, low humidity, and strong winds.

The blaze started at midday in forested mountainous areas, and by the afternoon had swept northwards into the city of Viña del Mar, home to 330,000 people, and the smaller urban areas of Quilpué, Limache, and Villa Alemana.

Wildfires have become three times as common in Chile in recent years, according to a recent report in Nature.

Officials say some are started intentionally and that extreme weather conditions – “fire weather” – are responsible for their rapid spread.

“Fires are increasing due to the combination of El Niño and global warming,” said Dr Raúl Cordero, climate professor at the University of Groningen and the University of Santiago.

“The years where fires are more frequent are the years of El Niño. The effects of global warming on the weather cannot be ignored anymore.”

Dr Cordero says that the main anomaly on the day of last week’s inferno was the extreme temperatures. “In the epicentre, on Friday and Saturday, it was 36 degrees  – a likely all-time record for this city,” he said. 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/tornado-of-fire-how-el-nino-sparked-chiles-worst-firestorm

Climate change?

No.

Quietly tucked away near the end of the Telegraph report is the real reason:

Forestry is actually very big business in Chile.

The Valparaiso region is in the central region of Chile, which has a Mediterranean climate. In other words, one which during El Nino is very hot and dry, and therefore prone to fires.

And it is this region where the native forests have been almost totally replaced by invasive species, including eucalyptus. Most of the clearing of native forests has taken place in recent decades:

As noted, eucalyptus accounts for about a third of plantations.

Is it any wonder these fires spread so rapidly nowadays.

Most fires in Chile occur up in the mountains well away from civilisation. But sooner or later, this tragedy was bound to occur.

Climate change has nothing to do with it.