Chile declared this Friday, February 2, a state of emergency due to a catastrophe due to the forest fires that are ravaging the center and south of the country, including tourist areas such as Viña del Mar in Valparaíso, a region where at least 10 people have died, according to a preliminary report. official. The situation is confusing because communications were cut off and the smoke and flames have isolated or paralyzed many inhabitants of these areas on the roads.
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“We are facing an unprecedented catastrophe (…) There are more than five simultaneous outbreaks,” acknowledged the mayor of Viña del Mar, in the Valparaíso region, Macarena Ripamonti.
Different fires recorded simultaneously in the central region of Valparaíso, 100 kilometers east of Santiago, left several victims early this Saturday, and the Chilean president, Gabriel Boric, decreed a state of emergency due to catastrophe to mobilize the necessary resources. to face the emergency.
“We have preliminary information that there are indeed people who have died. We do not know how many. There is very preliminary information and we will not know until the first rays of sunlight arrive of the day to provide more precise information, indicated the governor. of the region, Rodrigo Mundaca.
At first, the authorities reported at least 10 missing people – who could even have died -, but the situation at this time is very confusing because communications are interrupted and the various fires have not yet been able to be controlled.
“There is preliminary information of people who have died, approximately 10,” reported the presidential delegate in Valparaíso, Sofía González Cortés, on Friday.
As a result of the emergency, the Chilean president, Gabriel Boric, decreed “a state of emergency due to catastrophe to have all the necessary resources” to combat the fires.
We have decided to advance COGRID to 1230 am. The situation of forest fires, especially in the 5th region, is very difficult due to the temperatures and winds, but know that we are with the Government, Firefighters, CONAF, Carabineros and civil society deployed to the maximum of…
— Gabriel Boric Font (@GabrielBoric) February 3, 2024
Boric convened shortly after midnight on Friday to the Disaster Risk Management Committee (Cogrid) to offer the first estimates of damages and those affected by the flames, which spread ferociously in a matter of hours in conditions of extreme heat.
Firefighters and emergency services personnel are fighting against 10 outbreaks that affect, in addition to Valparaíso, the regions of O'Higgins – also in the center of the country – and Maule, Biobío, La Araucanía and Los Lagos – in the south -, they indicated. The authorities.
“I have never seen anything like it, this is very distressing because we evacuated the house but we cannot move forward, everyone (the people) is trying to get out and it is impossible to move,” Yvonne Guzmán, a 63-year-old administrator, who left her house in Quilpué, a commune located about 90 km northwest of Santiago.
Almost six hours after evacuating under “a cloud of ash,” Guzmán managed to reach a relative in Limache, about 21 km from his home. “On the road, it was full of fire spots,” he described.
At the moment, no reports of burned homes or the number of people evacuated have been released. In Valparaíso alone, the fire has consumed more than 7,000 hectares in a fire of “extreme behavior,” according to the National Forestry Corporation (Conaf).
In La Estrella and Navidad, about 200 km southwest of Santiago, other uncontrolled fires burned 27 homes, authorities reported, forcing the evacuation of several populated areas near the Pichilemu surf resort.
The mountains and hills are also burning at the end of Route 68, where thousands of tourists left this Friday heading to the Pacific beaches.according to viral images on social networks taken by people who were stranded on the completely collapsed alternative roads.
“Caught up”
After more than four hours stopped in traffic on an alternative road to the highway that runs through vineyards and agricultural fields to the Pacific coast, Guzmán learned through messages from neighbors that her house had burned down.
“We are trapped without being able to move,” she then told AFP by phone from the vehicle with her husband and nonagenarian mother-in-law. “We were alerted by the cell phone and then a rain of burning ashes began to fall,” said the woman.
The authorities of Viña del Mar ordered the suspension of the friendly that Colo Colo and Independiente del Valle were to play this Saturday due to the chain of forest fires that have surrounded the city since Friday morning.
Record temperatures
Since Wednesday, temperatures have touched 40ºC in the central area of Chile, where Santiago is located, which has increased the risk of fires.
On Friday afternoon, the Ministry of Transportation decided to completely cut traffic due to “reduced visibility due to smoke” on Route 68, which runs from Santiago to Valparaíso and leads to the Casablanca wine valley and the Viña del Mar resort.
“These events are increasingly recurrent, which is why we see that every year there are historical temperature records,” Pablo Lobos Stephani, fire protection manager at Conaf, told CNN Chile.
A heat wave with maximum temperatures is overwhelming the Southern American Cone these days, where the natural climate phenomenon of El Niño is exacerbated by global warming caused by human activity, according to specialists.
In the middle of the southern summer, 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.
With EFE and AFP
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