The Comisión Mixta (joint committee of both chambers) of the Congreso Nacional, Chile's national legislature, cleared the Ley de Incendios (Wildfire Law) after resolving the bill's last sticking points. One of the key agreements was to reject compensation for private owners who fail to comply with prevention measures, such as building firebreaks.
According to CNN Chile, the bill is now ready to be voted on first by the Cámara de Diputadas y Diputados, Chile's lower house, and then by the Senado, the upper house, after district week.
The progress came after weeks of waiting for a proposal from the Executive. According to BioBioChile, the disagreements centered on wildland-urban interface zones, meaning areas where homes are close to forests or other vegetated land, and on compensation for owners affected by preventive measures.
The committee chair, Senator Alejandra Sepúlveda (independent), explained that the ministries of Agriculture and Housing reached an agreement. "Today we are going to have a wildland-urban interface", she said, adding that it will be faster to design and implement.
The committee also approved allowing support for farmers in those zones to be channeled through the Instituto de Desarrollo Agropecuario (Indap), the state agricultural development agency, and through municipalities. According to Sepúlveda, the Government proposed creating a special fund for these areas, a matter that could be addressed through a presidential veto or another bill.
Senator Diego Ibáñez (Frente Amplio) defended the rejection of compensation. "It was not reasonable for the State to compensate those who do not comply with the minimum prevention measures", he said. In his view, responsibility must be shared, and anyone who does not build firebreaks cannot ask for compensation afterward.
The decision has clear winners and losers. The State avoids paying owners who did not fulfill their obligations. Landowners, on the other hand, bear the cost of prevention if they want to keep the option of compensation.
Sepúlveda acknowledged that several of the Government's proposals focus on fighting fires rather than prevention, which is the core of the bill. That is why she opened the door to separate legislation. "We are fully willing to speed up the entire legislative process if they want to add a short bill on firefighting", she said.
The senator added that the Agriculture Committee is reviewing the resources to face the coming season, including aircraft contracts. The sources do not give amounts.
The bill was introduced in Congress in October 2023. It requires fire risk to be incorporated into land-use planning instruments, establishes preventive management plans in the highest-risk zones and creates a system of administrative penalties.
Ibáñez called for speeding up the pending votes before the start of the highest-risk wildfire season. The next step is ratification of the Comisión Mixta's report, first in the Cámara and then in the Senado, once district week is over.
