At least 51 people have died in forest fires in central and southern Chile, Chilean President Gabriel Boric said on Saturday, adding that the figure was only preliminary.
After a lull, fires have flared up again in the tourist region of Valparaiso, home to the famous seaside resort of Viña del Mar, whose beaches are popular during this scorching time of the Australian summer.
According to Interior Minister Carolina Toha, the flames devastated almost 43,000 hectares on Saturday, especially on the Pacific coast.
“Forty people died in the fires, six others died of burns,” said the head of state after a helicopter flight over the region. “We know these (numbers) will increase.”
“This is an unprecedented disaster, the Valparaiso region has never experienced a situation of this magnitude,” said Macarena Ripamonti, mayor of the particularly affected city of Viña del Mar.
AFP
Strong winds fanned the flames and a cloud of black smoke covered the streets where explosions followed one another, AFP journalists noted.
Authorities have imposed a nighttime curfew from 9:00 p.m. local time (00:00 GMT) to help supply emergency teams with fuel, which Interior Ministry Undersecretary Manuel said is “a priority.” Monsalve.
AFP
There were renewed calls for evacuation, without knowing how many residents stayed at home.
“It was hell”
A total of 92 fires were active as of Saturday afternoon, 40 of which were under control, primarily in the Valparaiso region, but also in the center and south of the country, the Interior Minister said.
On the hills of Valparaiso, where the streets are littered with hundreds of charred cars, thousands of people could see their destroyed homes Saturday morning.
Luis Vial, a 69-year-old pensioner, collapsed crying in front of the rubble of his home in the Villa Independencia area, where 19 victims were discovered: “In a minute we lost everything.”
AFP
“It was hell, explosions. I tried to help my neighbor park his car, my house started burning from the back. It was a shower of ash,” Rodrigo Pulgar, a driver who lost his home in El Olivar, one of the areas most damaged by the flames, told AFP.
Firefighters have been fighting tirelessly since Friday against dozens of houses in the Valparaiso and O'Higgins regions in the center, but also Maule, Biobio, La Araucania and Los Lagos in the south.
AFP
“Priority is given to the fires in the Valparaiso region due to its proximity to urban areas,” said the Secretary of the Interior.
These are areas between 80 and 120 km northwest of Santiago that are rich in wine, agriculture and forestry businesses.
Stuck in her car
President Boric declared a state of emergency on Friday in order to “have all the necessary means” as the fires progressed. 14 ships and five helicopters were mobilized to fight the fire.
“We received an alert on the cell phone and a rain of burning ash began to fall,” Yvonne Guzman, reached by phone by AFP, had previously confided.
AFP
This 63-year-old woman, who left her home in Quilpué, a town 90 kilometers northeast of Santiago, was stuck in the car with her mother-in-law for several hours due to the large crowds as she tried to escape the flames.
Since Wednesday, temperatures in central Chile and the capital Santiago have been almost 40 degrees.
“These episodes are becoming more and more frequent, which is why we see historical temperature records every year,” Pablo Lobos Stephani, in charge of fire protection at the Chilean broadcaster, told CNN, the Chilean forestry agency CONAF.
AFP
This heat wave, resulting from the El Niño climate phenomenon, is currently hitting the southern tip of Latin America in the middle of summer, causing wildfires that are worsened by global warming. After Chile and Colombia, the heat wave will also threaten Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil in the coming days.