📋 Tender Overview
The Ministers of the Interior and Public Security, Carolina Tohá, arrived at the Charles Campus of the Naval Polytechnic Academy on the morning of this Tuesday, November 14; of National Defense, Maya Fernández; and the Mayor of Viña del Mar, Macarena Ripamonti; to learn about the training that CONAF is carrying out for the Army and Navy Forestry Brigades, prior to the 2023-2024 forest fire season.
The activity was also attended by the National Director of Senapred, Álvaro Hormazábal; and the manager of Forest Fire Protection of the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF), Pablo Lobos. At the site, the brigade members showed the authorities the implements they will use for the next season and the knowledge acquired, through a small exhibition in a place inside the naval complex.
For the 2023-2024 season, 32 brigades of the Armed Forces will participate, equivalent to 721 officials. And in the Valparaíso Region, five brigades will operate (three BRIFES and two BRIFAR), with 111 troops.
The Navy Forest Brigades (BRIFAR) are specialized patrols trained by CONAF, which advance in the second line, collaborating with the first line brigades and preventing the outbreak of fire outbreaks.
They are made up, as a base, of 19 members: 1 officer; 18 soldiers (professional conscripts); 4 Protection Unit (1 driver and 3 officers), who received training on protection against forest fires, fire behavior, forest fire fighting, organization of resources, safety in fighting forest fires and CONAF management in forest fires. to the regional reality.
On the occasion, Minister Fernández thanked the brigade members for their work, both from the armed institutions and from Conaf, and stated that "this is an example of the cooperation between the Armed Forces and different services and organizations in terms of preparation for forest fires. "We have been working on action plans for a year to prepare and strengthen the necessary coordination in case of emergencies."
For her part, Minister Tohá stressed that the State of Chile "year after year increases its capabilities to face this type of emergencies, which have become much more critical in the context of climate change." He assured that “the season that awaits us has had an unprecedented preparation in previous years” and that this initiative “is one of the hundreds of actions that are carried out on this date in the different territories of the country to prepare us for the summer season and the fire risks that come with it.”
Meanwhile, Mayor Ripamonti thanked the authorities present and the Armed Forces for “the expression of this public policy that is based on collaboration. Today there are threats that are plaguing our entire country, based on scientific data, and what we must all do is agree and take actions so that these threats decrease and we can mitigate them to the greatest possible capacity."
Álvaro Hormazábal, national director of Senapred, indicated that “77% of the Armed Forces brigades have already been prepared throughout the country, which is part of one of the strategies of the plan that was presented a few months ago and that “It includes specific activities that are being materialized with clear and measurable objectives.”
Finally, Pablo Lobos, CONAF Forest Fire Protection Manager, highlighted “the importance of the collaboration of the Armed Forces. in fighting fires, since they are a support for our actions, contributing as a second line to be able to contain and control fires as quickly as possible."
