On Tuesday the 26th of December a fire was started on the Grey Trail of the W in the National Park Torres del Paine, southern Patagonia, Chile. A suspected Israeli camper, Roter Singer 23, is said to have started the fire after burning hygienic paper on the trail. He is being held in the region for 90 days while the investigation contines.
The morning of the 27th the fire swept east towards the Paine Grande and into the Grey Sector. Movements by CONAF, the Chilean park ranger service, were slow to respond and on the 28th a was held at 9:30 am as high winds of over 100km per hour swept the blaze high into the mountains and over the hills of the French Valley. Fire Brigades were called n from Argentina, over 200 trained men fought to contain a blaze that was so large and covered such a difficult range of landscape, that it continued to consume the Magallanic Beech forests and scrublands. It was not until days into the fire before help on a more serious level of help was called in and by then the fire had consumed over 30,000 acres.
Last night at 1:00am, January the 2nd, the fire was burning near the Grey Hotel advancing rapidly, as Brigades from Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile tried to save the structures. Two brigades were evacuated from Puente Olgin, near the start of the fire around 1:30am. In the Laguna Verde Sector a large fire raged near the hills of Lazo Ranch at 3:00am, as 8 ranch workers there awaited the fire brigades to arrive at 6:00am.
The damage to the region of the park is catastrophic. There are over 118 species of bird life in the area, and in this early summer they are still nesting. Guanaco have lost valuable grasslands and Puma and Huemule Deer have been displaced. The national park is closed until this Wednsday the 4th, where it will opened in one sector near the Towers and the back side of the famous Circuit trek of Torres del Paine.
For the people in this region it has spread fear and worry for what lies ahead, as the tourism industry here gives work to over 70% of the people here and with the fire in early summer, many worry how they will make it over the long winter months when there are no tourists and very little income.
This morning is day 8 of a fire that is being reported to have now burned 60,000 acres of lush Beech forests and grasslands that will take a lifetime to grow back. The high winds of southern Patagonia, and the rocky soils, allows vegetation to grow slowly, a witness is the fires of 1985 and 2005 in which were reconsumed now in this fire ending 2011 and beginning 2012.
To the people in the region Magallanes, this is a critical and sad time and many are angry for the slow response of CONAF, as they look for answers, the fire rages in Torres del Paine, Chile.
