A fire this Thursday in the upper area of the city of Viña del Mar, 120 km west of Santiago, It left at least two dead and affected some 400 homes, forcing the government to declare a state of emergency.
The fire started in a sector called Nueva Esperanza 2000; crossed and reached these two parcels and goes down to the north
The flames, favored by strong gusts of wind, ravines and hills consumed in a few hours until reaching the lowest and most inhabited sectors of this seaside resort on the Chilean central coast, neighboring the tourist port of Valparaíso.
“Approximately 200 houses are burning,” said the commander of the Viña del Mar Fire Department, Patricio Brito, who later declared that the number of houses affected had risen to 400.
Brito also confirmed the death of two people as a result of the incident. “The fire started in a sector called Nueva Esperanza 2000; it crossed and reached these two parcels and is going down to the north, towards Quinta Vergara through a deep ravine,” explained the mayor of Viña del Mar, Macarena Ripamonti .
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Some of the evacuees left through Quinta Vergara, the amphitheater where the Viña de Mar International Song Festival is held every year, according to television images.
The National Emergency Office (Onemi) said it was a “rapidly spreading firehigh heat intensity and dispersion”, which had preliminarily affected some 110 hectares.
In addition, it decreed the communal “red alert” for Viña del Mar and ordered the evacuation of the Tranque Sur, Puerto Montt, Puerto Aysén, Cabritera, Forestal Alto, Siete Hermanas sectors and the informal settlement called “Felipe Camiroaga”.
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EFE
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