With the onset of high temperatures that increase the likelihood of forest fires, the El Teniente Division launched the Forest Fire Control Operations Committee (COCIF). The body is responsible for managing the risks associated with these incidents by coordinating prevention, preparation and combat actions on the Division's lands, in collaboration with the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF), which leads emergency responses.

Regarding the Division's forest fire strategy, Leonardo Argandoña, Director of Territory and Circular Economy, explained that "it is based on three pillars: prevention, preparation and combat. The most important thing is prevention, and El Teniente has already implemented key preventive measures such as the construction of firebreaks, patrols, clean-up work, weeding and community education programs to prevent fires together with CONAF."

Thanks to a 35-year collaboration agreement, El Teniente provides Conaf with infrastructure, technology and resources to install brigades on Division premises to provide support and coverage in the event of such emergencies.

For this purpose, the Peumo-12 brigades are installed at the Coya Country Club and the Roble-11 brigade at the Hacienda Loncha experimental farm in Alhué. Self-supporting 40,000-litre pools are also in operation for use by helicopters and surveillance towers to support smoke detection, among other things.

Drone surveillance

One of the innovations for prevention is the use of drones to monitor the presence of unauthorized persons in the facilities, which in addition to being used for security, will be used to locate early, forest fire spots in the more than 46,000 hectares of land of the Division in the Metropolitan and O'Higgins regions, where more than a third are susceptible to being affected by forest fires.

"The committee is already in operation, allowing for a rapid and coordinated response to any incident related to forest fires. In the event of a forest fire, CONAF takes control of the emergency, but this committee can collaborate and support the work carried out by the firefighters with additional information or resources," said Argandoña.

As for the Division's critical operational assets, there are telecommunications antennas, pumping systems, electric transmission towers, El Cobre highway, tailings channel, powder magazines, and Maitenes processing facilities.

The hotspots where there is a significant concentration of biomass, and therefore a greater risk of forest fires, are located in the sectors of La Paula, Fundo Sauzal, Hacienda Cauquenes, Hacienda Loncha and Fundo La Estrella.