2024-02-04T17:10:03+00:00
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/ Agence France-Presse reported on Sunday that the death toll from forest fires that swept through central and southern Chile has risen to 51, with the death toll likely to rise, in the worst tragedy the country has witnessed in the last decade.
“In a minute, we lost everything,” the agency quoted retiree Luis Bial, 69, as saying, crying in front of the rubble of his home in the Villa Independencia neighborhood on the hills of Valparaiso, where 19 victims were found.
The fires are spreading in the tourist area of Valparaiso, where the famous coastal resort of Peña del Mar is located.
The death toll is still rising, with authorities initially reporting 45 victims, then Interior Ministry official Manuel Monsalpi said on Saturday that “six others died in medical centres”.
Rossana Avendaño, 63, feared for her husband for hours as he slept alone in their home in the El Olivar neighborhood of Peña del Mar.
“It was terrifying because I couldn’t get back to my house,” Avendaño told AFP. “When the fire came, my husband was sleeping and started feeling the flames and then he managed to escape.”
In addition to the human losses, between 3,000 and 6,000 homes were damaged or destroyed in these wildfires, the deadliest in the last decade, according to Monsalby.
Interior Minister Carolina Toha said the fires had burned about 43,000 hectares on Saturday, especially on the Pacific coast.
“We know the number of victims will rise,” Chilean President Gabriel Boric said from his La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago after flying by helicopter over the affected area.
“It’s an unprecedented disaster, and the Valparaiso area has never seen a situation of this magnitude,” said Macarena Ripamonte, mayor of Peña del Mar, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of Santiago.
Agence France-Presse journalists reported that strong winds fanned the flames, noting that a cloud of black smoke covered the streets.
The authorities imposed a night curfew starting at 9:00 p.m. (00:00 GMT) to facilitate the supply of fuel to emergency teams.
New calls for evacuation were made, but it was not possible to know how many residents remained in their homes.
By early Sunday morning, there were still 30 active fires out of 92.
On the hills of Valparaiso, where the streets are filled with hundreds of charred cars, thousands were able to inspect their destroyed homes on Saturday morning.
“It was hell, explosions. I tried to help my neighbor put out his car, and my house started burning from behind. It rained ash,” Rodrigo Pulgar, a driver who lost his home in El Olibar, told AFP.
Firefighters have been fighting tirelessly since Friday to put out dozens of fires in the areas of Valparaíso and O’Higgins in the center, as well as in Maule, Biobio, La Araucanía and Los Lagos in the south.
The Minister of the Interior announced that “the priority is the fires in the Valparaiso area, given its proximity to urban areas.”
These areas are located between 80 and 120 km northwest of Santiago, and are rich in winemaking, agriculture and forestry, and witness an influx of tourists during this period due to their proximity to the Pacific Ocean.
President Boric declared a state of emergency on Friday in order to “provide all necessary means” to deal with the development of the fires. Fourteen ships and five helicopters have been mobilized to fight the fires.
Since Wednesday, temperatures have been approaching 40 degrees in central Chile and the capital, Santiago.
The fires are due to a summer heat wave and drought affecting the southern part of South America due to the El Niño weather phenomenon, amid warnings from scientists that global warming increases the risks of natural disasters such as extreme heat and fires.
While Chile and Colombia are facing rising temperatures, a heat wave threatens to sweep through Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil in the coming days.