Over a dozen people died and thousands were forced to relocate after a massive overnight fire broke out in the Chilean city of Valparaiso on April 12. One of the neighborhoods affected was Cerro Merced, where current Davis resident Jorge Loyola’s childhood home burned down.
“My daughter is living in Chile now. She called me saying that a fire started. A couple hours later the fire got bigger,” Loyola said. “Four hours later, it was in my neighborhood. Five hours later and my neighborhood was gone.”
Loyola said he contacted the UC Davis Chilean Student Association and the Chilean Cultural Association of Davis, asking them to assist that neighborhood where his sister and niece still currently live. The associations are now working together to raise money for Cerro Merced residents, focusing their efforts on just a few families.
“[We’re] trying to raise some money to help the neighbors,” Loyola said. “My family has me to help them, but my neighbors have no one.”
According to viticulture and enology Ph.D. student Italo Cuneo, who worked as a firefighter in Chile for over a decade, a great percentage of the people affected are very poor, and raising money is the associations’ priority.
The Chilean Student Association’s goal is to raise $50,000 for 45 people. The families will be given the money directly and will be free to use it for whatever they need. So far, the association has raised $3,000.
“We always try and do this type of thing. When someone needs something — it is one of our purposes: to help each other,” said food science and technology Ph.D. student Valarie Weinborn, who works with the Chilean Student Association.
The association is working with a community center in Cerro Merced so that they can get in touch with the families and find those that are most in need. Even though the fire affected many people, active members in the association think focusing their efforts will be more effective than distributing the money to a larger number of people.
The UC Davis International Agricultural Development (IAD) program is also hosting a public fundraising event on May 17 for the fire victims. According to its website, the IAD program prepares students for careers in global agricultural and rural development and has an annual fundraiser for a cause, this year’s cause being the victims of the Chile fires.
“They usually do fundraising every year in spring and they choose an institution to give the money to,” Weinborn said. “This year they are giving the money to us.”
According to Cuneo, fires in Valparaiso are not unusual. In fact, during the summer season there can be around 500 fires in the forest located behind the city’s hills. Normally though, these fires are contained before they breach the houses in the city.
“This one had terrible wind conditions that were too strong,” Cuneo said. “It was basically impossible to stop this fire. When the fire got to the houses, it took everything.”
Cuneo said the fire was able to spread quickly because of the geographical nature of Valparaiso. He compared the area to San Francisco, because of its many hills and clustered houses.
The fire was only one of the events on a list of unfortunate events in Chile recently, as an 8.2 earthquake had hit Chile’s northern region in early April.
“We have earthquakes, we have tsunamis, we have fires and we have volcanoes,” Loyola said. “Everything happens in Chile.”
The lightweight wooden houses in Valparaiso are built to withstand earthquakes. Unfortunately, these wooden houses cannot withstand fires.
“It is not the best material because it burns very quickly. Most of the firefighters said there was nothing they could do,” Cuneo said.
According to Loyola, the larger buildings in the area are made with concrete and reinforced with steel, but most people living in the hills of Valparaiso can’t use those costly materials.
Many people in the area also don’t have fire insurance because it is also too expensive. Cuneo said that many people get caught in the vicious cycle of having to rebuild their houses after every fire.
“I grew up in that neighborhood and know everyone,” Loyola said. “My town was burnt down, my high school. My sister had just finished building the house and now it is completely gone with the fire.”
For more information about contributing money for the UC Davis Chilean Student Association’s efforts, go to http://www.gofundme.com/8dlekk.
LEYLA KAPLAN can be reached at features@theaggie.org.
