{"id":60134029,"date":"2026-05-22T14:09:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T13:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/?p=60134029"},"modified":"2026-06-02T12:06:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T11:06:19","slug":"she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaving Home: She left after the fire; a Chilean community\u2019s struggle to stay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Carmen Mardones first began to call Canal Chacao home when she was 29. Set among the hills of Quilpu\u00e9, the neighbourhood offered a life closer to the forest with their two young children: Kattya, four, and Jorge, two. Catalina, their third, was born after they had made the move, in 1997, from the nearby coastal city of Vi\u00f1a del Mar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first, she rented. Over time, she bought a house and spent years fixing it up. She continued to work in Vi\u00f1a del Mar, selling automobile parts in a business she had inherited from her father. She built a life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaving Home<\/p>

This is the third of a four-part series on displacement shaped by conflict and climate extremes. Across Africa, Asia and Latin America, it follows people uprooted by war, fire, drought, floods and political decisions. These experiences are shaped by specific histories but bound by a shared question: what remains of home when home itself is always under threat?<\/p>

Read parts\u00a0one<\/a>,\u00a0two<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0four<\/a>.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Then came the great fire of 2-3 February 2024 \u2013 the deadliest in Chile\u2019s recent history, killing 138<\/a> people and affecting more than 21,000<\/a>, according to government figures. She remembers the day. She remembers how a black cloud settled over their homes. Sirens wailed, gas pipes exploded, and smoke filled every space. The water was cut off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She evacuated with her husband and youngest daughter, damp towels pressed to their faces because the air was unbreathable and the flames were everywhere. They got into the car, and for a while, left the fire behind. Still, she did not leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mardones left two weeks later \u2013 after days of clearing away earth and burnt debris, and listening to the sound of the neighbour across the street crying. \u201cI just wanted to stop seeing everything destroyed every day,\u201d she said. What hurt the most, was \u201closing the history of each family\u201d. \u201cIt does you a world of harm. It gives you no hope.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She isn\u2019t alone. Mardones\u2019 decision is part of an issue drawing increased attention. Between 2016 and 2022, nearly 39,000 people were forced<\/a> to leave their homes due to a weather event or to avoid its effects. Earthquakes accounted for 41% of these displacements, followed by forest fires (30.8%), floods (17.4%), extreme temperatures (6.4%) and landslides (3.3%). More recently, nearly 50,000 people were evacuated<\/a> in a matter of hours after wildfires struck southern Chile in January 2026, shows data from the National Service for Disaster Prevention and Response (Senapred).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"houses<\/div>
Homes in Canal Chacao, central Chile, where Carmen Maldones used to live. Given their location by the forest, fires are common in the summer (Image: Muriel Alarc\u00f3n)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In Canal Chacao, that vulnerability was part of the everyday. The neighbourhood sits on a strip of land where the town meets the forest. Summer fires, Mardones said, \u201cwere relatively normal\u201d. They would last an hour, and residents knew what to do: Mardones would run hoses and soak her roof till they subsided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until February 2024, normal had not meant this. It had not meant a fire driven by fierce winds that refused to subside. And it had not meant the heartbreaking question: should they stay or should they go?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preparing for disaster<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One year before the February 2024 fire, some residents began to organise themselves to prepare for disaster. The Canal Chacao area comprises around 1,400 homes, spread across the neighbourhoods of Canal Chacao itself, Villa Botania, Cumbres de Quilpu\u00e9 and Bello Horizonte, where some 12,600 people live. In 2023, they founded the Canal Chacao Association<\/a>, with 12 people on its board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The urgency had been building for years. In 2014, the Great Valpara\u00edso Fire had destroyed<\/a> 2,900 homes and affected 12,500 people. Across the region, increasing heatwaves and strong winds renewed the pressure every summer. And there was no faith<\/a> in the state\u2019s early warning systems, explains Estrella Barrios, a member of the association’s board. \u201cThere was a lack of trust in the authorities, who are supposed to protect us, but don\u2019t arrive on time,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"two<\/div>
Estrella Barrios (right) and Brenda Rodr\u00edguez (left), members of the Canal Chacao Association\u2019s board, at the organisation\u2019s command centre (Image: Muriel Alarc\u00f3n)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Latin America has become one of the epicentres of the global climate crisis. UN climate science body the IPCC says<\/a> the region is experiencing warming, and an increased frequency of droughts and other extreme weather events. \u201cCentral and South America are highly exposed, vulnerable and strongly impacted by climate change\u201d, it states. The situation is \u201camplified by inequality, poverty, population growth and high population density, land use change particularly deforestation with the consequent biodiversity loss, soil degradation, and high dependence of national and local economies on natural resources for the production of commodities\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The members of the Canal Chacao Association knew they had to act. In 2023, they began participating in training sessions organised by Caritas Chile, a Catholic aid organisation, in partnership with the National Forestry Corporation (Conaf) and the Quilpu\u00e9 municipal government. The five-month programme focused on understanding the local environment \u2013 its strengths, risks and vulnerabilities \u2013 as well as the resources available within the community. Conaf provided the more technical information: regulations, what can or cannot be pruned, and protected species. They even set up a command centre, complete with a computer and printer for administrative work, as well as tools like brush cutters, wheelbarrows, rakes, radio equipment and a camera to document their activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCommunities that feel frightened and abandoned by the state often want to go and tackle the fire themselves,\u201d says Andaluc\u00eda Corval\u00e1n, a specialist in community disaster risk management at Caritas Chile. \u201cPart of the project\u2019s transformation process was to explain that the community\u2019s role is prevention too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the months that followed, the group put that training into practice. By January 2024, they had cleared areas with dense vegetation, built firebreaks by removing vegetation from residential zones, pressured the local council to install water tanks to dampen areas exposed to high temperatures, and planted doca (Carpobrotus chilensis<\/em>), a succulent that acts as a natural defence against fires. They designed a community risk map identifying, among others, older people and those with reduced mobility who would need help evacuating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"people<\/div>
Bush removal in Canal Chacao in December 2025. Along with the planting of succulents, these actions help to impede the spread of fire and keep roads open in case of an outbreak (Image: Agrupaci\u00f3n Canal Chacao)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When the fire came, it was these actions that helped save lives. The clearing and brush removal helped keep roads open and access routes unobstructed. Barrios said that the community knew not to head towards the fire, so as not to hinder the work of firefighters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In nearby Villa Independencia, the destruction was far greater and the death toll significantly higher. Estimates suggest that around 60<\/a> people died there. In Canal Chacao, the death toll was seven. \u201cChile has a serious shortage of resilient infrastructure. So when the great fire came, the population had no defined excavation routes. In Canal Chacao, people knew the area and how it worked,\u201d says Sof\u00eda Jacob, a researcher on disaster displacement at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (Flacso).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of those who lost their life was a voice that had been warning of the risks. Months earlier, the Canal Chacao Association had hit a wall during their training: public land could be cleared of weeds, but adjacent private land was beyond their remit. Carmen Mardones\u2019 home bordered a privately owned forest, and her neighbour, Delia Uribe, an octogenarian who was a member of the Canal Chacao Association, had warned of the need to clear it, Barrios said. \u201cShe told us literally: \u2018If the forest catches fire, I\u2019m going to burn to death\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the fire came, and raged through the weeds, Uribe refused to evacuate, choosing to stay with her husband who had previously suffered a stroke. Today, the Canal Chacao Association meets at a command centre named after her: Delia Uribe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Living with the fire<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Though she was aware of the association\u2019s resilience work, Mardones did not take part in their training sessions in 2023. Her job made it impossible. \u201cRetail hours are quite demanding,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, she has never doubted that leaving was the right decision. Staying was taking a psychological toll. In the days after the fire, her husband refused to leave the ruins of their home. He slept inside the car, in the garage, and watered the remains every day. \u201cI was afraid he would be left with trauma. That is why I decided to leave, and go far away,\u201d she says about the decision to move to Limache, another inland city in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Jacob, community preparedness efforts like those in Canal Chacao can help reduce distrust and, in turn, displacement. The decision to leave is rarely triggered by a specific moment, she says, but by a continuum of factors which build up in the months or years before. \u201cWithout environmental education, there is no resilience,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>
Recommended<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/a>\n\n\n\n

In Canal Chacao, residents now have portable radios connected to Senapred and the Fire Service. They watch weather data closely and analyse it to anticipate the behaviour of fires. Given the uncertainty about authorities issuing timely alerts, they can initiate an evacuation themselves. \u201cIf we see the situation is unfavourable, we issue the first warning through a WhatsApp group made up of community members and managed by the Canal Chacao Association,\u201d explains Barrios. They now hope to implement a third lever of alert using an emergency siren. \u201cThat\u2019s what we still have pending,\u201d Barrios adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the challenge ahead is financial: USAID funding that enabled them to acquire basic equipment is now gone. \u201cIt stopped providing funding,\u201d Barrios says. The group now applies to different funding sources, with some limited success \u2013 they recently bought some chainsaws, and a drone is next on the agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mardones, on her part, still visits Canal Chacao where her former neighbours still live. The house she left behind was demolished and later rebuilt with support from the social organisation Desaf\u00edo Levantemos. It is now home for her son Jorge, 31, his partner, and her daughter Catalina, now 23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"woman<\/div>
Carmen Mardones on the site where her house stood before it was destroyed by fire in 2024. Following a reconstruction, her son and daughter now live there (Image: Muriel Alarc\u00f3n)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s beautiful now,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, she still feels afraid for her children. She knows they live with the burden that they must always be prepared, and always at the ready; caught between leaving and staying. \u201cBefore, it never even crossed our minds that Canal Chacao could burn. Now, I think it could happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some have migrated from the Valpara\u00edso region, but others have organised to remain in the face of advancing forest fires<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50000968,"featured_media":60134030,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[761,50039902],"tags":[20000192,50029850],"hashtags":[],"country":[50000024],"class_list":["post-60134029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate","category-forests","tag-disasters","tag-wildfires","country-chile"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLeaving Home: She left after the fire; a Chilean community\u2019s struggle to stay | Dialogue Earth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Some have migrated from the Valpara\u00edso region, but others have organised to remain in the face of advancing forest fires\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leaving Home: She left after the fire; a Chilean community\u2019s struggle to stay\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some have migrated from the Valpara\u00edso region, but others have organised to remain in the face of advancing forest fires\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dialogue Earth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-22T13:09:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-02T11:06:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20240203_burned-houses-Vina-del-Mar_Chile_Cristobal-Basaure-Araya_SOPA-Zuma-Press_Alamy-2WGGH9B-thumb.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Muriel Alarc\u00f3n\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Muriel Alarc\u00f3n\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/157b0bbc0599224bdd2b2e090dbef8de\"},\"headline\":\"Leaving Home: She left after the fire; a Chilean community\u2019s struggle to stay\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-22T13:09:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-02T11:06:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/\"},\"wordCount\":1785,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20240203_burned-houses-Vina-del-Mar_Chile_Cristobal-Basaure-Araya_SOPA-Zuma-Press_Alamy-2WGGH9B-thumb.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Disasters\",\"Wildfires\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Climate\",\"Forests\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/\",\"name\":\"Leaving Home: She left after the fire; a Chilean community\u2019s struggle to stay | Dialogue Earth\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20240203_burned-houses-Vina-del-Mar_Chile_Cristobal-Basaure-Araya_SOPA-Zuma-Press_Alamy-2WGGH9B-thumb.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-22T13:09:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-02T11:06:19+00:00\",\"description\":\"Some have migrated from the Valpara\u00edso region, but others have organised to remain in the face of advancing forest fires\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20240203_burned-houses-Vina-del-Mar_Chile_Cristobal-Basaure-Araya_SOPA-Zuma-Press_Alamy-2WGGH9B-thumb.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20240203_burned-houses-Vina-del-Mar_Chile_Cristobal-Basaure-Araya_SOPA-Zuma-Press_Alamy-2WGGH9B-thumb.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"scorched hillside\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Leaving Home: She left after the fire; a Chilean community\u2019s struggle to stay\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Dialogue Earth\",\"description\":\"Global climate and environment news\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"\u5bf9\u8bdd\u5730\u7403\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Dialogue-Earth-Symbol-Logo_Black-Text.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Dialogue-Earth-Symbol-Logo_Black-Text.png\",\"width\":256,\"height\":256,\"caption\":\"\u5bf9\u8bdd\u5730\u7403\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DialogueEarth_\",\"\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DialogueEarth.English\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/dialogue.earth\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/dialogueearth\/\"],\"publishingPrinciples\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/about\/\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/157b0bbc0599224bdd2b2e090dbef8de\",\"name\":\"Muriel Alarc\u00f3n\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/author\/murielalarcon\/\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/author\/murielalarcon\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Leaving Home: She left after the fire; a Chilean community\u2019s struggle to stay | Dialogue Earth","description":"Some have migrated from the Valpara\u00edso region, but others have organised to remain in the face of advancing forest fires","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Leaving Home: She left after the fire; a Chilean community\u2019s struggle to stay","og_description":"Some have migrated from the Valpara\u00edso region, but others have organised to remain in the face of advancing forest fires","og_url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/","og_site_name":"Dialogue Earth","article_published_time":"2026-05-22T13:09:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-06-02T11:06:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":800,"url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20240203_burned-houses-Vina-del-Mar_Chile_Cristobal-Basaure-Araya_SOPA-Zuma-Press_Alamy-2WGGH9B-thumb.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Muriel Alarc\u00f3n","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/"},"author":{"name":"Muriel Alarc\u00f3n","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/157b0bbc0599224bdd2b2e090dbef8de"},"headline":"Leaving Home: She left after the fire; a Chilean community\u2019s struggle to stay","datePublished":"2026-05-22T13:09:40+00:00","dateModified":"2026-06-02T11:06:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/"},"wordCount":1785,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20240203_burned-houses-Vina-del-Mar_Chile_Cristobal-Basaure-Araya_SOPA-Zuma-Press_Alamy-2WGGH9B-thumb.jpg","keywords":["Disasters","Wildfires"],"articleSection":["Climate","Forests"],"inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/","name":"Leaving Home: She left after the fire; a Chilean community\u2019s struggle to stay | Dialogue Earth","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20240203_burned-houses-Vina-del-Mar_Chile_Cristobal-Basaure-Araya_SOPA-Zuma-Press_Alamy-2WGGH9B-thumb.jpg","datePublished":"2026-05-22T13:09:40+00:00","dateModified":"2026-06-02T11:06:19+00:00","description":"Some have migrated from the Valpara\u00edso region, but others have organised to remain in the face of advancing forest fires","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20240203_burned-houses-Vina-del-Mar_Chile_Cristobal-Basaure-Araya_SOPA-Zuma-Press_Alamy-2WGGH9B-thumb.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20240203_burned-houses-Vina-del-Mar_Chile_Cristobal-Basaure-Araya_SOPA-Zuma-Press_Alamy-2WGGH9B-thumb.jpg","width":1200,"height":800,"caption":"scorched hillside"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/she-left-after-the-fire-a-chilean-communitys-struggle-to-stay\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Leaving Home: She left after the fire; a Chilean community\u2019s struggle to stay"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/","name":"Dialogue Earth","description":"Global climate and environment news","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization","name":"\u5bf9\u8bdd\u5730\u7403","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Dialogue-Earth-Symbol-Logo_Black-Text.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Dialogue-Earth-Symbol-Logo_Black-Text.png","width":256,"height":256,"caption":"\u5bf9\u8bdd\u5730\u7403"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/DialogueEarth_","","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DialogueEarth.English","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/dialogue.earth\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/dialogueearth\/"],"publishingPrinciples":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/about\/"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/157b0bbc0599224bdd2b2e090dbef8de","name":"Muriel Alarc\u00f3n","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/author\/murielalarcon\/","sameAs":["https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/author\/murielalarcon\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60134029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50000968"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60134029"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60134029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60135688,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60134029\/revisions\/60135688"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60134030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60134029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60134029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60134029"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=60134029"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=60134029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}