Cuando los barbijos (también) ardieron. Escenarios de emergencia superpuestos en el noroeste de Chubut.

Abstract

On March 9, 2021, two sources of fire broke out in Lago Puelo, Northwest of Chubut, and by joining made way to an environmental catastrophe as the region had never seen before. In this paper we aim to describe, on the one hand, the historical reasons that made this event possible, and on the other, the particularities that the COVID19 pandemic took in this territorial unit. In doing so, we seek to show how both were linked to the historical forms of territorial construction in the region of the Comarca Andina del Paralelo 42, and how they raised different risk scenarios. The objective is to analyze how these emergency scenarios, one recurring and one extraordinary, related to one another generating a crisis. To do this, we rely on epidemiological and fire management statistics, data collected from interviews and field observations, government reports and journalistic notes. The analysis of the case confirms the structural nature of territorial production in the construction of risk. Thus we argue that unless they are modified, emergencies will persist either in their extraordinary (COVID 19 pandemic) or recurrent (wildfires) mode.