Patagonia Is Burning

More than thirty wildfires ripped through Chile this weekend, killing 19 and burning more than 135 square miles and hundreds of homes in the regions of Biobío and Ñuble.

Meanwhile, fires have raged for several weeks across the border in southern Argentina, burning across at least sixty square miles, including homes and native forests, but with no reported deaths.

The two countries are in the middle of an extended heatwave, and high winds have supercharged the spread of fires through already-dry native vegetation and forest plantations, explained Miguel Castillo, director of the Forest Fire Laboratory at the University of Chile.

“Climate change, humidity conditions, strong winds, or a large number of consecutive days with temperatures above 30°C [86 degrees, Fahrenheit],” all contribute to the increasing frequency of large, deadly wildfires, said Castillo.

While the number of forest fires in Chile is below its historical mid-January average, the damage and area burned by the ongoing fires is extreme, he said.

“The number of fires is one thing, and the size of the fires is another. And in terms of the size of the fires, we have an issue to resolve because they are increasingly getting out of control,” said Castillo.

In 2023, drought-stricken eucalyptus and pine plantations fueled megafires that killed more than 20 Chileans, injured 2,000, and destroyed thousands of homes in Biobío and Ñuble.

The following year, forest fires in the Valparaíso region killed over 130, making it the deadliest fire in the country’s history.

This weekend, the Chilean government evacuated more than 50,000 people from Biobío and Ñuble, where the largest fires burned. On Sunday, President Gabriel Boric declared a state of catastrophe in the two regions, allowing the country’s armed forces to be deployed as firefighters and aid workers. 

CONAF, the state-owned nonprofit organization that manages Chile’s forests and national parks, and SENAPRED, the state’s disaster response agency, reported deploying 400 firefighters and 36 aircraft to the region on Sunday.  

Meanwhile, Argentinians have begun returning to their scorched communities two weeks after the fires first broke out in the Chubut province.

As residents attempt to rebuild, those most affected by the fire are the families that relied on income tied to their land, said Sofia Nemenmann, an environmental activist involved in wildfire prevention in Patagonia. “There are families that beekeep, families that produce with their gardens, and those are the families that lost the most. Because they lost not only their homes but also their source of income.”

Nemenmann and her partner have spent the last few weeks travelling to communities affected by the fires to help residents rebuild. But ongoing heat and strong winds threaten to set contained fires loose once more, she said. In Puerto Patriada, where a wildfire continues to burn in the nearby mountains, the air is still thick with smoke.

“We are concerned every day that it is hot or every day that it is windy,” said Nemenmann. “Those are days when we already know there will be more fires due to weather conditions.”

​The federal response to weekslong fires in Argentina is markedly different from the situation rapidly unfolding in Chile. When the Patagonia fires began on January 5th, nearly a week passed before President Javier Milei addressed the emergency, posting an AI-generated image of him shaking hands with a firefighter.

But since taking office in 2023, Milei slashed Argentina’s fire management budget by more than 70 percent. The 2026 budget includes further cuts to the National Fire Management Service, nearly halving the funds for what employees of the Argentine national park office say is an agency that’s already understaffed. 

During his campaign, Milei repeatedly argued that environmental protections are government overreaches that hinder business growth. He has also expressed great skepticism about climate change, going so far as to call it a “socialist hoax.” 

Climate denial in Argentina is “very dangerous,” said Nemenmann. “It generates concrete, tangible impacts. It generates public policy, a policy that denies the root of the problem.”

For example, the country treats forest fires as isolated crimes with a “culprit” and “victims,” Nemenmann said. It’s generated a reactive system that “only works to put out fires” rather than investing in prevention and mitigation, she says.

National Security Minister Alejandra Monteoliva was quick to blame the Argentine wildfires on “terrorist groups called Mapuches,” referring to Indigenous communities in Patagonia that have fought with the government over land rights and the presence of extractive industries in the area.

In a radio interview, Carlos Diaz Mayer, the chief prosecutor of the Chabut province, flatly dismissed Monteoliva’s accusation. “There’s nothing involving them in this case. I would straightforwardly reject that accusation.”

Both Argentina and Chile will face many more forest fires before the South American summer is over. The forest fire season has not yet peaked in the southern tip of the continent, typically doing so during the first half of February. 

In her work with communities impacted by wildfires, Nemenmann has observed that the first point of contact or help following a disaster is most often a neighbor. “In some way, this also gives us the strength and the certainty that people are willing to learn to live with fires,” she said. “We know we have to learn to live with fires.”