The Diplomat
The Chilean ambassador to Spain, Javier Velasco, praised the work carried out by the members of the Emergency Military Unit (UME) who travelled to Chile to help extinguish the forest fires that have broken out over the last two months.
Velasco accompanied the Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles, at the reception for the contingent of 50 UME personnel who arrived on Tuesday at the base in Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid). Also present were the head of the UME, Lieutenant General Luis Manuel Martínez Meijide, and relatives of the soldiers.
Robles described the soldiers as “heroes”, stressing that they are fighting fires just as much as they are helping in the rescue work after the earthquake in Turkey.
For his part, the Chilean ambassador reiterated the message of gratitude to the unit, saying: “The UME is one of the most powerful tools Spain has in terms of cooperation and diplomacy”.
Chile suffered a wave of forest fires since last December, which intensified in February, causing the loss of homes and deaths of people, leading the country’s authorities to request international assistance.
On the Spanish side, in addition to the UME, the Spanish Forest Fire Reinforcement Brigades (BRIF) and a Forest Fire Assessment and Assessment Team (FAST) from the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge were on hand.
The UME team, which left Spain on Sunday 5 February, was made up of 43 military personnel from the operational unit and 7 commanders equipped with hand tools, as well as Mavic and Matrice 300 RTK drones equipped with thermal cameras for reconnaissance of the areas affected by the fire.
The unit intervened in the Biobío Region, the most affected by the fire and the same region where it operated in 2017 for similar reasons. There they worked on the Las Toscas, Omerhuet, El Cortijo and Santa Ana forest fires, according to the needs of the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF), a service of the Chilean Ministry of Agriculture.
