Claudio Andrade
04/10/2021 3:43 PM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 04/10/2021 3:43 PM
One month after the fires in the Andean Region, which left three dead, dozens injured, 327 houses destroyed, 1,000 people on the street and 3,000 hectares consumed,
the outlook continues to be bleak in the mountain range
.
Only about 20 houses could be built in this time,
just 45 days after the arrival of the harsh winter
, according to what this newspaper was able to find out.
Most of those affected remain living in the same rural areas hit by fire, in tents, in tapas made with sticks and plates or in the houses of friends, relatives and even in hostels or cabins managed by local municipalities.
The provincial aid, pledged by Governor Mariano Arcioni, has not yet arrived, residents confirm.
They have been without electricity and water for a month.
For the electricity to return, dozens of power lines that were destroyed must be put up.
On March 26, the Senate unanimously approved the bill declaring the Department of Cushamen, in Chubut, and El Bolsón in Río Negro a Disaster and Environmental, Economic, Productive and Social Emergency Zone.
More than 300 families swarm near the mountains
where their homes once stood.
The environment is cold and the
constant presence of ash
is still perceived in the air
.
These are neighborhoods located a few kilometers from Lago Puelo, El Hoyo and El Bolsón, among others.
Burned cars in Las Golondrinas, one of the affected towns.
AFP photo
The
food and clothing collections
that came from all over the region and other provinces, covered a minimum part of the immediate needs of the residents.
Tens of kilos of clothes were first parked in gyms and warehouses without anyone claiming them and then they went to the landfill.
Some neighbors recovered the garments discarded as old or torn and began to use them to cover their new buildings.
"
What we have lost we will no longer recover.
And investing again is almost impossible. The resignation and dreams that we left here remain,"
the writer and journalist Cristian Aliaga
tells
Clarín
, who saw desolate how the flames reduced the city to rubble. his son's house and the building and all the contents of his Hudson publishing house in Cerro Radal, 6 kilometers from El Bolsón.
"I have friends who are entrepreneurs and started to leave, for them to return would be very difficult. There is a
structural and judicial fragility
that does not allow you to invest again, and these people who are leaving are the ones who were giving work," underlines Aliaga, who lost , among other things, 2,000 books from your deposit.
"After a month, we continue without electricity or drinking water. The worst thing is that
there are no expectations that this will be solved
. There is like a vacuum in the provincial government that has many people on edge," said Pablo San Martín, a resident of El Hoyo, to the Río Negro newspaper.
Scorched land.
A view of the forest, burned by the March fires.
AFP photo
"The fires affected 40% of the Andean Region, and more than 350 families were affected by this disaster and have lost practically everything," stated the Chubut senator Alfredo Luezo, author of the emergency project.
"The destruction is such that the Executive must have the necessary tools," he added.
Neighbors say that the Arcioni government
does not act with the speed required by the crisis
.
"Winter is coming. That is the phrase that everyone pronounces here. Aid slows down in the framework of deficiencies and a state absence that has been going on for years," Aliaga continues.
Emergency housing
For now, the residents have built some houses in La Parcela 26 and the Ecoaldea, but in the Al Sur neighborhood and others, in Las Golondrina, Faldeo del Piltriquitrón, among many others, only
tents and wooden frames covered with nylon can be seen
.
In total, no more than 20 emergency homes managed to be completed, it transpired.
"We have already registered the affected families, there are 30 houses, and we have signed the agreements with the Ministry of Territorial Development and Habitat of the Nation, ratified by the Deliberative Council, to build. In 45 days they should be ready," he says. to
Clarin
Paul Huisman, mayor of El Hoyo.
The houses are modular structures that will use wood sourced from local sawmills, Huisman explained.
The provincial government launched the Reconstruction and Financial Assistance Program to shovel the housing drama, with amounts of up to 2.8 million for construction and up to 1.5 million for its repair, with a rate of 0 percent and a year of thanks .
A family begins to rebuild their house in Las Golondrinas.
AFP photo
One of the conditions that the program presents is that it
requires title deed
or other instruments that prove possession and there are not a few residents who do not have it regularized.
"The truth is that people have lived in a matchbox for a long time. Prevention is not done and the underlying problem is not who lit the fire, if someone or nature, but
the lack of prevention and planning in which they did. that this exploded
", reflects the photographer and neighbor Alejandro Chaskielberg.
The professional did get some of
the most shocking shots of the fire
to travel the world.
The origin of fire
Although on March 11, Senator Alberto Weretilneck presented photographs of a suspicious vehicle, its license plate and the names of the occupants, based on information provided by the residents themselves, the Lago Puelo prosecutor, Carlos Díaz Mayer, who is involved in the case ,
he toned down these accusations
.
"I have nothing. I do not have any evidence that indicates that Mapuche people caused the fires," Díaz Mayer told Río Negro.
"The trained dog did not detect the presence of accelerant. He did
not find anything,
" the prosecutor insisted.
In the days after his first presentation to the authorities, Weretilneck continued to provide more data, but so far
no progress has been recorded
in this research hypothesis.
According to what has transpired, the Justice of Chubut is inclined by the theory of
an accident that started in the transformers of the electrical service
of the province.
"There is nothing about it yet," Weretilneck confirms to this newspaper.
The Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development of the Nation, Juan Cabandié, who filed a criminal complaint,
also took weight away from the hypothesis of the attack
over the weeks.
He said he was struck by the "simultaneity" of the bulbs, but that there was no conclusive evidence in this regard.
There are videos and images that reveal that
the first two outbreaks originated at a distance of about 10 to 15 kilometers
and with a few minutes minutes difference between the two.
Another strong hypothesis is that on March 9
winds that reached 100 kilometers per hour
were recorded
in some sectors of the mountain.
The winds pushed numerous power poles and these falling would have caused the fires.
This would explain the rapid sequence of outbreaks in the area.
However, some neighbors insist that, at least partially, the hand of man intervened in the disaster.
Bariloche. Correspondent
ACE
Look also
In the heart of the fire: a micro documentary shows the fire in the south as never seen
A firefighter died and there are already three fatalities due to the fires in the Andean Region