Wildfires threaten two Chilean cities, destroying 1,000 homes and killing 19
Wildfires that have swept through the coastal hills of central Chile since Friday have killed at least 19 people and destroyed more than 1,000 homes, according to the national government. Many more deaths are feared.
The wildfires are advancing in Viña del Mar and Valparaíso, two cities that form a vast region with more than a million inhabitants on Chile's central coastline, about 120 kilometers northeast of the capital Santiago.
Just after noon, President Gabriel Boric flew over the area in a helicopter and said his government had been working to “secure the greatest resources” in Chile's history to fight fires during the country's wildfire season, which typically strikes during summer and southern hemisphere summer. reaches a peak in February.
“I assure you all that as a government we will be there to help you recover,” he wrote on social media platform X.
On Friday evening, President Boric issued a constitutional decree granting his government additional powers to fight the fires.
The Chilean wildfires come as Colombia is also battling blazes in the mountains around Bogotá, the capital, while dozens of other fires have burned across the country in what officials say is the hottest January in three decades. Climatologists have linked the extreme drought there and the forest fires to the warming trends plaguing South America.
Several Chilean agencies, as well as the country's air force, deployed 92 aircraft to fly over the fires and drop water. The government has also issued a steady stream of evacuation orders, mixed with pleas for calm.
Makeshift shelters and support centers have sprung up in several cities, with local authorities calling for donations of drinking water, mattresses, blankets and food.
The Interior Ministry imposed a 9 p.m. curfew on Saturday in Viña del Mar and several nearby towns.
On Saturday morning, Chile's Interior Minister Carolina Tohá announced that fifteen of the nineteen victims had been identified so far, including a 17-year-old girl.
Ms Tohá warned that the death toll was likely to rise once authorities gained access to affected areas. She added that 92 fires are still burning across the country – 29 of which are still being fought and 40 of which have been brought under control – with more than 260 square kilometers of land already destroyed by the fires.
Viña del Mar Mayor Macarena Ripamonti said that in addition to the confirmed fatalities, 249 people were reported missing.
Eight areas of the city were evacuated, including patients from a hospital clinic that police and firefighters moved to other facilities.
January was the second warmest on record in Santiago; the warmest was in 2017, a year also affected by the El Niño weather phenomenon, which typically brings high temperatures and heavy rainfall to the Pacific coast of South America.
As forest fires ravage central and southern Chile every summer, Chile's National Forestry Commission regional director for Valparaíso, Leonardo Moder, said one of the fires was deliberately set and was moving towards Viña del Mar.
The Valparaíso City Council has launched a criminal investigation, officials said.