With 51 dead confirmed so far and the fear that the number will skyrocket in the coming hours, Chili fights against the deadliest wave of fires in its recent history and its largest emergency since the 2010 earthquake and is preparing for a difficult night in the central region of Valparaíso, where the flames advance without respite.
“After the 2010 earthquake (which left 525 dead and thousands injured), The forest fires in Valparaíso will be the emergency situation that has generated the most victims in Chile in recent times,” Interior Minister Carolina Tohá said in a press conference.
At the stroke of midnight and in the last official report, the minister warned that the number of deaths could be “much higher” As the hours passed: “We still have a large part of the territory that is not accessible, consequently we do not have a complete survey of victims,” he added.
The mayor of Viña del Mar, one of the cities most affected by the fire, said minutes before that the Municipality manages a provisional registry of 372 missing people, which does not imply that all of them are dead. but it does give an idea of the magnitude of the tragedy.
“Serious antecedents of intentionality”
The fires began on Friday morning and spread quickly due to the unusually high temperatures in the region, intense wind gusts of up to 60 kilometers per hour and low humidity.
Although Chile has experienced one of the winters rainiest in the last 15 years, Specialists have been warning for months that the drought has not been eradicated and that there is a great probability that fine, dead vegetation will develop in the central-southern zone that is easy to burn, to which is added the impact of a forest model based in the monoculture of pine and eucalyptus.
“The eucalyptus is not even a native species, which sucks up all the water. We are tired of saying that we want to cut them down,” Elba Concepción, a retired teacher whose home on a hill in Viña del Mar known as Lomas de Chorrillos, told EFE. “he was saved by a miracle.”
According to the National Forestry Corporation, there are at least eight active fires currently in the Valparaíso region, 100 kilometers east of the capital, four of which are of particular concern due to their virulence and their proximity to densely populated areas.
The largest one is in the Lago Peñuelas/Las Tablas Reserve, next to the main highway in the area, which has already burned. more than 8,000 hectares and about which there are “serious antecedents” to think that it was provoked.
“Know that it will be investigated to the last consequences and with all the necessary resources,” President Gabriel Boric said from the La Moneda palace after flying over the most affected areas in the morning.
On Friday, the president declared a state of emergency due to a catastrophe in the area, a tool that allows him to have the necessary resources to face the emergency.
The deadliest wave of fires so far took place just a year in the south and left 27 dead.
View of burned houses after a fire that affected the hills of the Los Olivos commune, Viña del Mar.
Rodrigo Arangua. AFP
“Unprecedented catastrophe”
The flames have especially affected the hills that surround Viña del Mar, packed with precarious wooden and zinc homes, distributed in narrow streets that the fire and smoke turned into real mousetraps early Saturday morning.
“The wave of fire started from the hill and began to take over house by house and there came a moment when it was uncontrollable,” Héctor Liguri, a 47-year-old resident of Achupallas, a Villamarino sector where the first 19 deaths were confirmed, told EFE.
In El Olivar, another sector of Villamarin very affected by the flames, Karina Aljaro, 39, told EFE that “there were moments of anguish and despair.”
During the afternoon of Saturday, the devastating fire approached the center of the city and reached its industrial heart, where various explosions were recorded in chemical warehouses, paint factories and other warehouses and a large toxic cloud was formed.
“We are facing an unprecedented catastrophe,” said Mayor Macarena Ripamonti of what is known as the “garden city,” a tourist hub in the country. where these days thousands of vacationers have arrived to enjoy its beaches.
The Administration of the Botanical Garden, one of the main tourist attractions in Viña del Mar, reported that the flames consumed the park and that one of its workers died along with her family in the fire.
To facilitate rescue efforts and clear evacuation routes, the Government ordered a 12-hour curfew, from 9:00 p.m. local time (00:00 GMT) in the sectors that have not yet been evacuated from the towns of Quilpué, Villa Alemana, Limache and Viña del Mar.
For Sunday, a slight drop in temperatures and an increase in humidity is expected, which could help the near of 1,500 brigade members and thirty aircraft to control the fires, although the window of opportunity is small because the heat returns on Monday.
“I want to reiterate the call that, given the indication to evacuate, do not hesitate. The fire is advancing very quickly,” said Boric.
EFE
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