Presentation short abstract

Chile’s recent forest fires reveal how neoliberal policies have produced flammable territories. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the afterlife of two massive events, this paper shows how scapegoat politics obscure the structural origins of these disasters and limit both prevention and response.

Presentation long abstract

In recent decades, massive wildfires have erupted across Chile with growing intensity, exposing how neoliberal state policies have reshaped landscapes and produced hazardous living conditions. Among these, two events stand out: The 2017 Santa Olga fire, which ravaged more than 550,000 hectares of territory, and the 2024 Viña del Mar fire, which claimed 139 lives and affected at least 20,000 people. Taken together, these events reveal how long-term transformations linked to extensive deforestation, the expansion of monoculture plantations, weak environmental regulation, and a persistent housing crisis have pushed low-income communities into risk-prone areas. In the afterlife of these fires, state institutions focused on identifying individuals accused of starting the flames. This narrow narrative of culpability operated as a form of scapegoating and failed to acknowledge the broader political and ecological conditions that have intensified fire exposure and limited the possibility of meaningful prevention and response. Drawing on fieldwork with victims, community organizations, and state agents in Santa Olga and Viña del Mar, this paper examines the political origins of Chile’s current fire crisis. It asks where fire comes from and why this question matters in a context where neoliberal land policies, private forestry regimes, and unequal access to safe housing continue to produce unequal territories. By approaching fire as both an environmental process and a political force, the paper shows how scapegoat politics obscure the structural origins of wildfire risk and prevent recognition of the long-term transformations that have produced Chile’s flammable landscapes.