At least 19 dead in the Valparaíso region due to serious forest fires that reach urban areas

The forest fires affecting the central-southern area of ​​Chile, which are especially serious in the Valparaíso region, where they have reached urban areas, have left at least 19 dead, as reported this Saturday morning by the Minister of the Interior of the Government by Gabriel Boric, Carolina Tohá. But “the count of fatalities is very provisional, because those we have confirmed are all from the same sector, from Villa Independencia in the Achupallas sector. [de Viña del Mar], where today it is possible to enter. There are other areas, however, where we still do not have confirmed reports,” said the minister. Only 15 of the bodies have been identified, including that of a 17-year-old girl: “There is a lot of work to do regarding identification.”

The president, who is already beginning to fly over the area, has decreed a state of disaster emergency in the Valparaíso region, near Santiago, specifically in the provinces of Valparaíso and Marga Marga. He has done it because of the public calamity that the fire represents, aggravated by the high summer temperatures and strong wind.

He Disaster Risk Management Committee (COGRID), which brings together the authorities in charge of making the main decisions in the face of these emergencies, was convened in the early hours of this Saturday and resolved, in turn, to implement the curfew from eight in the morning until noon this Saturday to facilitate the movement of emergency teams. He governed the municipalities of Limache, Quilpué, Villa Alemana and Viña del Mar, but Tohá has called on the population of Valparaíso not to go out unnecessarily during the day. The committee met again this Saturday morning and plans to do so again at 3:00 p.m. After that, public information about the tragedy would be updated.

President Boric arrived at the Government Headquarters early in the morning to monitor the emergency. “Already in La Moneda to continue monitoring the emergency that affects the central-southern area of ​​our country. We will have all the technical and human resources to fight forest fires because the priority is always the safety of families. “We will not leave them alone!” assured the president.

In the Valparaíso region alone there would be more than 1,000 homes affected, although Minister Tohá said this Saturday that a count cannot yet be made and that there could only be a figure on Sunday. “We are facing a complex and critical situation,” the regional governor, Rodrigo Mundaca, previously acknowledged. There are some urban areas especially affected, such as El Olivar, in the municipality of Viña del Mar, and Pompeya north and Pompeya south, in Quilpué.

Tohá pointed out that this Saturday there are two active fires that generate greater concern: The tables (several fires that have come together in Viña del Mar, with at least 6,800 hectares burned) and The moscose (Quilpué, 1,150 hectares burned). There are 14 ships in combat and five additional helicopters are expected. On the way there are 20 tank trucks, 200 brigade members from the National Forestry Corporation (Conaf) are working and 450 firefighters have come to reinforce the locals with 61 additional cars.

Local television channels have changed their usual broadcasts to report live on the tragedy and the media report on the drama experienced by hundreds of humble families. “I just found out that a neighbor has been burned to death, along with her son and nephew,” says a woman interviewed by the public channel, TVN, from the Achupallas area, in Viña del Mar, where the 19 deaths have been confirmed. by the authorities. Karen, another interviewed by the television station in this same neighborhood, complains about the lack of help: “They want to kill us, because we are poor. “Everything exploded like a bomb,” she told TVN. As the fire worsened at night and early in the morning, with daylight human remains have begun to be found in the streets, of people who were starting the fire, different media outlets report from different areas of the Valparaíso region.

Tohá has said that nationwide there are 93 active fires, 29 of them in combat and 40 controlled. Between this Friday and Saturday, he added, the number of hectares burned has gone from 30,000 to 43,000, because on this date the number of affected hectares multiplies very quickly. The minister indicated that “there is an active red button” between the capital and the Valparaíso region to areas of the La Araucanía region, in the south. “It is a very large area that is in a very delicate situation,” she said, “although the priority is on the fires in the Valparaíso region, due to its proximity to urban areas.”

The national director of Senapred, Álvaro Hormazábal, has warned that this Saturday there will be conditions “similar to those of yesterday” and possibly “the fire will advance” from midday.

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