Emergency in Chile: 51 fatalities due to devastating fires

Forest fires were reactivated this Saturday in Viña del Mar, in the central Chilean region of Valparaísoturned into an inferno by the flames that devour the hills and leave several dead, evacuated areas and a huge trail of destruction.

The number of people who have died product of the devastating fires that since Friday have been devastating the central region of Valparaíso, 100 kilometers from Santiago, increased to 51 and the Chilean authorities this Saturday referred to the tragedy as the most serious since the 2010 earthquake, which left 525 victims and thousands injured.

(Also read: At least 46 dead from forest fires in Chile).

President Gabriel Boric flew by helicopter over the affected region, with fire outbreaks between 80 and 120 km northwest of the capital. “We know that these (victims) will increase,” the Chilean president emphasized at the time, when 40 fatalities were confirmed.

“After the 2010 earthquake, the forest fires in Valparaíso will be the emergency situation that has generated the most victims in Chile in recent times“said the Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, in a press conference, who warned that the number of deaths could be “much higher” as the hours went by.

A dense cloud of smoke rose again over this tourist area, subjected to high temperatures in the middle of the southern summer.. The authorities declared a night curfew starting at 9:00 p.m. local time (00:00 GMT) and issued new evacuation alerts, although the exact number of people who have had to leave their homes is still unknown.

“The curfew seeks to reduce the pressure on supplies, the priority is to supply fuel to emergency means.a”, with the support of the Chilean Army, explained the undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior, Manuel Monsalve.

Walking through the smoke, thousands of people returned to their destroyed homes on Saturday morning for the “unprecedented fires” that keep Viña del Mar, Valparaíso and other regions of central and southern Chile in emergency.

“This was hell, explosions. I tried to help the neighbor turn off his car, my house was starting to burn from behind. It was a rain of ashes“Rodrigo Pulgar, a driver who lost his home in El Olivar, one of the sectors most devastated by the flames on Friday afternoon, told AFP.

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Photograph showing a fire in an industrial area during the forest fires affecting Viña del Mar.

“We will be there as a government to help them get up,” President Boric simply stated after the flyover. Supported by helicopters and planes, firefighters and volunteers fighting the flames in the hills in various parts of the country.

Before noon on Saturday there had been registrations 92 fires, 40 of them have already been controlled, while brigades battle against 29 outbreaks. The fire has consumed some 43,000 hectares in the country.

The fires in the central region of Valparaíso have caused at least 19 deaths,

“The priority is on the fires in the Valparaíso Region due to its proximity to urban areas, there fundamentally we have several fires, but two are of greater concern,” Tohá explained.

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Fire between hills and sea

The most affected areas are near the Pacific beaches, 80 and 120 km northwest of Santiago, where wine, agricultural and logging companies operate. During this season it also receives a large number of tourists. The strong winds are dragging the flames towards transportation and furniture factories. Black smoke covers the sky along several streets amid explosions that follow one after another, to the helplessness of the firefighters, according to an AFP team.

On Friday the government also ordered a curfew in the area, to facilitate the evacuation of residents and the work of emergency teams.. As a result of the emergency, the president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, decreed a state of emergency due to catastrophe on Friday, to have “all the necessary resources” to put out the flames.

A helicopter works in the area of a forest fire in the hills of the Quilpe commune, Valparaíso region.

In December 2022, the same region of Valparaíso suffered strong forest fires, which are usually intentional, and then there were two deaths, according to official reports. The fire also spreads quickly due to construction in unauthorized areas.

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'Without precedents'

The mayor of Viña del Mar, Macarena Ripamonti, was surprised by the magnitude of the fires. “We are facing an unprecedented catastrophe, a situation of this magnitude had not happened in the Valparaíso Region, there are more than five simultaneous outbreaks and the most affected sector is once again Viña del Mar,” she noted.

People fight the fire with firefighters in the Las Palmas area, during the forest fires that affect Viña del Mar.

The routes to these Pacific beaches were closed on Friday after noon, and several fire outbreaks expanded very quickly, burning populated areas.where the alternative routes of thousands of people trying to evacuate collapsed.

According to a report from the National Forestry Corporation (Conaf), the largest forest fire is in the Lago Peñuelas Reserve, next to the main highway to the area, which has burned more than 8,000 hectares. The second largest fire burns in La Aguada, commune of La Estrella, O'Higgins Region, in the center of the country, which has destroyed 4,084 hectares.

A heat wave with maximum temperatures is overwhelming the Southern American Cone these days, where the natural climate phenomenon of El Niño is becoming more acute. due to global warming caused by human activity, according to specialists. Alerts for persistent suffocating heat are in effect from this week and next in areas of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil, as well as in Chile.