Funding cuts, conspiracy theories and ‘powder keg’ pine plantations have seen January’s forest fires tear through Chubut in southern Argentina
L
ucas Chiappe had known for a long time that the fire was coming. For decades, the environmentalist had warned that replacing native trees in the Andes mountain range with highly flammable foreign pine was a recipe for disaster.
In early January, flames raced down the Pirque hill and edged closer to his home in the Patagonian town of Epuyén, Argentina, where he had lived since the 1970s. Thirty people with six motor pumps fought for hours, hoses stretched for kilometres, but “there was no way”.
“We had to throw all our equipment into the stream and get the hell out of there,” he says as he recalls fleeing as the inferno engulfed his house. “The dragon chased us until we crossed the river, and we had to speed between two fire columns along a trail barely a kilometre wide.”
