Dozens of fires are raging in southern Chile. Authorities now report 51 deaths. The coastal town of Viña del Mar, which is popular with tourists, is particularly badly hit.
Viña del Mar – “It was an inferno,” a resident of Viña del Mar in Chile told the news agency AFP. He lost his house to the flames. Severe forest fires are currently raging in the center and south of the South American country, which have spread to several houses in the region.
Authorities report 51 deaths in forest fires in Chile – President declares a state of emergency
On Sunday (February 4th) several firefighters battled the flames. President Garbiel Boric declared a state of emergency. “We will be there as a government to help you get back on your feet,” he said of the affected regions. He had previously gotten an idea of the situation on a helicopter flight.
In order to help, the authorities imposed a curfew in the fire areas. It is intended to enable the supply of relief supplies and has been in effect since Saturday evening (9 p.m. local time). It is currently not clear how many people this affects.
At least 51 people have now died in the fires, local authorities report. They had to adjust the death toll upwards. Initially there was talk of 46 deaths, six more people died in hospitals as a result of their burns.
Forest fires in Chile spread to tourist town – residents are left with nothing
Viña del Mar was hit particularly badly. The city is located on the coast in the Valparaíso region and is a popular tourist destination. On Saturday night, entire streets burned down in the hills surrounding the city of 300,000 residents. Thousands of people were evacuated and returned only to find burnt-out ruins.
Even worse pictures on the streets in front of the burned houses. Cloths with covered corpses line the cityscape. It's dark, thick smoke hangs over the city.
“It was terrible, we lost everything,” said Rosa Avenando from the El Olivar district AFP. She was not at home when the fire broke out and feared for her husband's life for hours. Locals experienced a similar fate during the devastating fires in Hawaii in the summer of 2023.
“Unprecedented disaster in Chile”: fires hit several tourist cities
Viña del Mars mayor spoke of an “unprecedented catastrophe”. She said a crisis “of this magnitude has never occurred in the Valparaíso region.”
According to Interior Minister Carolina Tohá, 43,000 hectares of land have already been destroyed by the fires across the country. For comparison: In the largest fires in the history of the EU, 73,000 hectares burned in Greece. Houses were also destroyed by the flames in the towns of Estrella and Navidad, southwest of the capital Santiago de Chile. The regions of O'Higgins, Maule, Biobío, La Araucanía and Los Lagos south of the capital were also affected. There were also evacuations in the town of Pichilemu, which is considered a surfer's paradise. (moe with AFP)
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