Ten years have passed since the approval of an investment aimed at replacing the Darío Salas school in the Las Compañías sector of La Serena. However, the renovation has yet to materialize. The situation resurfaced in the public agenda after a fire consumed part of the building early Saturday morning, located at the intersection of Juan José Latorre and Río Zancarrón.
The emergency was declared shortly after 2:30 AM, when firefighters arrived to control the blaze, which was in a phase of free combustion. This necessitated an intense deployment of volunteers to contain the flames and prevent their spread to nearby homes. Hours later, around 10:30 AM, a new alarm mobilized emergency teams due to a flare-up, which ultimately turned out to be just smoke.
Residents expressed concern over the aftermath of the fire: a completely deteriorated structure and a facility that, beyond the fire, shows signs of advanced neglect. The situation has reignited alarms among those living in the area. “We started to hear sounds like wood cracking, like firecrackers, and when we looked out the window, the school was completely engulfed in flames,” recounted Bárbara Miranda, a local resident, who also claimed that the place is being used irregularly.
“We always see when people come in and out; they cook here, they do drugs. They have opened up the entire front to gain access,” she stated. The resident also warned about the ongoing risk faced by neighboring homes.
“We feel very unsafe because if the classroom next to our houses catches fire, all these homes could burn down,” she sai…
This has been abandoned for a long time, and no one does anything,” she added, hoping that the situation would finally be acknowledged. “Hopefully, this will serve to make them take charge and prevent something worse from happening. ” Another neighbor present at the scene also expressed sorrow over the state of the facility.
“It’s a real tragedy to see the place like this. My children studied there, and now it’s completely abandoned,” he commented. A renovation that never arrived The project to replace the Darío Salas school, which involved an investment of over $5 billion—updated in 2022 to more than $6.
7 billion—faced multiple administrative obstacles for nearly a decade, preventing its realization. The initiative, mandated to the Municipality of La Serena by the Regional Government of Coquimbo in 2018, considered the construction of a new facility on the same site on Juan José Latorre Street, with a projected area of 6,814 m² and infrastructure that included classrooms, administrative areas, technical-professional workshops, a cafeteria, and a multi-sport court. However, the process was marked by repeated failures in bidding.
The first attempt, initiated in 2019, was rejected in 2021 due to inconsistencies in the bases and exceeding the available budget, a situation worsened by the reassignment of resources during the pandemic. A second process was revoked in 2022 due to unauthorized modifications, while a third was declared void that same year. Finally, in February 2023, the fourth attempt was canceled after the loss of the Technical Admission Resolution (RATE RS), a key requirement for its execution.
Additionally, there were unsuccessful consulting processes. Although in July 2023 it was proposed to reformulate the project as a new educational initiative, no progress was recorded, leaving the school community in temporary facilities at the former health center on Valparaíso Street. From the Elqui Local Public Education Service, they addressed the current situation of the establishment and its future.
“In its current facilities on Valparaíso Street, the Darío Salas school has an enrollment of only 68 students. However, SLEP Elqui, as resources become available, intends to revitalize the educational project, just as it has improved the infrastructure of the Jorge Alessandri, Gabriela Mistral, and Carlos Condell de La Haza high schools,” they stated. NOTE: The project to replace the Darío Salas school exceeds $6.
7 billion, but after four failed bidding processes, it has yet to materialize.