Fire kills 19 people and engulfs industrial hub in tourist city in Chile

The devastating fire that started on Friday (2) in the densely populated mountains surrounding the city of Viña del Mar, 120 kilometers from Santiago, Chile, has already caused 19 deaths, is advancing relentlessly and has reached industrial sectors, where several explosions were recorded in chemical warehouses, paint factories and other warehouses.

Authorities ordered mass evacuations in El Salto, Limonares, Chorrillos and Canal Chacao, and the smoke spread to the beach in the so-called “garden city”, one of Chile's most popular tourist destinations, which attracts thousands of tourists every summer. “It's one of the biggest fires in the city's history,” said the mayor of Viña del Mar, Macarena Ripamonti.

The exceptionally high temperatures not only in Viña del Mar, but also in the rest of the Valparaíso region (close to 38 degrees), together with strong gusts of wind and low humidity, complicate control of the fire. In addition to the fire advancing towards the center of Viña del Mar, there are other cities in the Valparaíso region devastated by the fire, such as Quilpué, where a hospital had to be evacuated due to the proximity of the flames.

“Evidently, everything indicates that there is a degree of intentionality when four outbreaks appear simultaneously within a radius of 400 meters from each other”, said the regional governor, Rodrigo Mundaca. Authorities confirmed this Saturday morning (3) that at least 19 people had died in the region and warned that the number of victims could increase as the hours pass, as security teams reach devastated areas.

To facilitate rescue and firefighting efforts and free up evacuation routes, the Chilean government ordered a 12-hour curfew, starting at 9 pm (Brasília time) in sectors that have not yet been evacuated in the cities of Quilpué, Villa Alemana, Limache and Viña del Mar.

Last year, Chile suffered the deadliest wave of fires in its history, which left 27 people dead and thousands of homes destroyed in the central-southern regions of the country, such as La Araucanía, Biobío and Ñuble. Although Chile has experienced one of the wettest winters in the last 15 years, experts have been warning for months that the drought has not been eradicated and that there is a high probability of thin, dead vegetation developing in the central region.