Chile Fires: Torres del Paine

Torres del Paine Fires

December saw tragedy strike in the area of the Torres Del Paine National Park. The fire in Torres del Paine, which began on Dec. 27, was finally brought under control by firefighters on Sunday night, having consumed some 33,000 acres. Over 400 tourists had to be evacuated form the park and the extent of the damages to local flora and fauna is yet to be determined.

Chile’s government has charged Rotem Singer, a 23-year-old Israeli tourist with burning his hiking group’s toilet paper, resuting in flames that grew out of his control. A member of Singer’s hiking group told authorities they saw Singer start a fire that he was unable to properly extinguish, reported La Tercera, leading to his arrest.

Another member of the hiking group, Mandi Gisser, refuted these claims to local media, saying Singer did start a fire, but she saw that it was properly snuffed out.

Rotem Singer denies any connection to the event and was released on Sunday, Jan. 1. He is being put under restrictive conditions and must report to the police station every week. He was released in the town of Puerto Natales, though his passport has been confiscated by authorities and is forbidden to leave the Patagonian region until his case is heard.

In a statement made on 2 January 2012, President Sebastián Piñera revealed that approximately 12,795 hecatres of land have been affected by the Torres del Paine fires, two thirds of which are grasslands and steppes, and one third of which is native forest. He affirmed that at the time, four of the six foci of the fires were under control, with 753 firefighters from Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and the US working to tame the flames.

The partial reopening became effective 4 January 2012 in the morning and covers approximately 100.000 hectares (out of 242.000) basically the so called traditional Torres del Paine and Rio Ascencio Valley tourist circuits plus the Las Torres Hotel; areas for campers at Cuernos, Serón, Dickson and Rio Los Perros plus the Laguna Azul camping.

The rest of the park will remain closed and under “constant monitoring”. However the re-opening covers almost 80% of the tourist access area of the national park which receives every year on average 150.000 visitors, making it the main attraction of Chilean Patagonia.

Back to Newsletter