This week, the Head of Logistics and Regional Operations of the Civil Protection, Rosa Mata, and the Inspector and Head of the Department of the Central Chamber of the Fire Department of the State of Generalitat, Moises Galán, returned from a mission in Chile to the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism to analyze and propose improvements in the management of the large fires that the country has experienced this year. General. Specifically, the General State Fire Inspector was there as team leader, and Rosa Mata as information management expert.
The mission was carried out at the request of the Chilean authorities in Europe, following the serious fires that broke out at the beginning of February in the Valparaiso region that killed 135 people, burned 25,500 hectares across the region and damaged about 4,700 homes.
The overall objective of the mission was to analyze the management of this emergency so that it could issue a series of recommendations to the Chilean government in order to improve the forest fire prevention and response system.
The mission was carried out from 20 April to 4 May, and the EU Civil Protection Mechanism team consisted of 4 experts from Spain, 3 from Portugal, 1 from Romania and 2 officers from the European Commission Directorate-General for Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) in Brussels. They were all selected from the European Emergency Coordination Center (ERCC).
The fires in Chile occurred as part of a period of drought and heatwave in an area characterized by a large urban forest strip occupied by wooden houses and a dense vegetation of mainly pine and eucalyptus trees. In addition, Chile has already suffered serious fires on several occasions, including fires in 2017 and 2023.
During the mission, field visits were carried out and about twenty meetings were held with the main organizations involved in managing this type of emergency in Chile.
On the last day of the mission, a presentation of the results was made at the Moneda Palace in Santiago de Chile, with representatives of the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Relations of Chile, as well as with the Director of SENAPRED. (National Civil Protection Agency of the Chilean Government), among others.
Established in 2001, the EU Civil Protection Mechanism aims to strengthen cooperation and synergy between States in the field of civil protection to improve prevention, preparedness and response to major emergencies or disasters, whether natural or man-made. The mechanism is activated at the request of the state affected by the emergency, which can ask Europe to support response teams during the emergency, experts to coordinate them, or provide advice on civil protection.
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