Finance
Chile struggles to rebuild a year after its deadliest wildfires in history
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on February 3, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 26, 2026
Global Banking and Finance Review
Company
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on February 3, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 26, 2026
Chile struggles with slow rebuilding a year after deadly wildfires, with government efforts criticized and protests demanding action.
By Rodrigo Garrido and Alexander Villegas
VALPARAISO, Chile (Reuters) - Carlos Vidal is still shoveling rubble that used to be his home a year after the deadliest wildfires in Chile's history tore through his neighborhood and the coastal cities of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar, killing 137 people.
Vidal, 63, says he signed up to receive government housing but got no response, so he has been slowly rebuilding his home, aided by a government bonus, on the ashes of his previous one.
Buildings scarred by the fire still surround Vidal's home and many residents, including a local mayor, have complained that the government has not done enough to aid the rebuilding effort.
"The fire victims say they have no clarity on what their housing situation is going to be, they don't know the time frame or how it's going to be done," said Carolina Corti, the mayor of Quilpue, a commune in the Valparaiso region.
On Sunday, the anniversary of the fires beginning on Feb. 2, hundreds of residents blocked a road separating the two cities to demand more government action.
"It's been one year and we have no solution," said Renato Tapia, one of the protesters on Sunday, adding that he has had all the documents needed to begin reconstruction since March.
"This is an older population, a lot of retirees," Tapia said. "Our situation is critical."
In a statement on Friday, Chile's ministry of housing and urbanism acknowledged that reconstruction had been slow and said it aimed to speed up the process.
"Finishing a house takes longer than a year. We always set a time frame to a year and a half, two years. Life shows us it takes up to three years," Minister Carlos Montes said, adding that the process would speed up now that they had built a solid foundation.
The ministry noted that out of the 3,043 affected families, 626 had a subsidy and 636 were in the process of receiving one, meaning 41% of families were in "some stage of reconstruction."
It added that 78 families had a permanent housing solution while 320 houses were being built, 228 were scheduled to begin and plans to house 685 families were being drawn up.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Garrido in Valparaiso and Alexander Villegas in Santiago; Editing by Alison Williams)
Residents, including Carlos Vidal, report a lack of clarity regarding their housing situation and have expressed frustration over the slow government response to aid in reconstruction.
The wildfires affected 3,043 families, with only a portion currently receiving government subsidies or housing solutions.
The ministry of housing acknowledged that reconstruction has been slow, indicating that completing a house can take up to three years, contrary to their initial estimates of one to two years.
On the anniversary of the fires, hundreds of residents blocked a road to demand more government action, highlighting their ongoing struggles with the rebuilding process.
As of now, 78 families have a permanent housing solution, while 320 houses are under construction and plans for housing 685 families are being developed.
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