At least 51 people have died due to the forest fires that have relentlessly punished the tourist region of Valparaíso (center) since Friday, in the deadliest tragedy it has faced. Chili in the last decade, according to authorities. The number of victims continued to increase this Saturday amid firefighters’ efforts to control the flames. The legal medical service had previously recorded 45 deaths, but “there are six more people who died in healthcare facilities,” reported the Undersecretary of the Interior, Manuel Monsalve.
Rosana Avendaño, a 63-year-old kitchen helper, was away from home when the fire began to rage The olive groveone of the sectors of Viña del Marwhere she lives with her husband and her pet.
LOOK: Government of Chile: “Valparaíso fires are the greatest tragedy since the 2010 earthquake”
“It was terrible because I couldn’t get (to my house). The fire came here (…) we lost everything. “My husband was lying down and began to feel the heat of the fire that was coming and he ran away,” the woman told AFP.
Avendaño did not have contact with him until this Saturday, but for hours he feared the worst. In the end his pet was also saved from the flames.
In addition to the human losses, There are between 3,000 and 6,000 homes affected in the deadliest forest fires of the last decadeaccording to the undersecretary.
From the La Moneda palace, in Santiago, the president Gabriel Boric He anticipated that the victims will “increase” given the “dimension” that “the tragedy” is taking.which also leaves 43,000 hectares burned.
Only in the sector Villa Independencein Viña del Mar, “19 people died (…), all the bodies were lifted,” the Minister of the Interior said earlier. Carolina Tohá.
In the afternoon the fire was reactivated again in Valparaiso. A dense cloud of smoke rose again over this area where the high temperatures in the middle of the southern summer.
The authorities decreed night curfew in Viña del Mar and three other locations starting at 9:00 p.m. local (00:00 GMT) and new evacuation alerts issuedalthough the number of people who were forced to flee their homes has not been reported.
In total 92 fires have been recorded40 of them have already been controlled and 29 outbreaks are still active that are trying to be put out by firefighters with the support of helicopters and planes.
Fire between hills and sea
The most affected areas are near the Pacific beaches, 80 and 120 km northwest of Santiago, where wine, agricultural and logging companies operate.
During this season it also receives a large number of tourists.
The strong winds are dragging the flames towards transportation, painting and furniture factories. Black smoke covers the sky along several streets amid explosions that follow one after another, to the helplessness of the firefighters, according to an AFP team.
As a result of the emergency, the president Boric decreed a state of emergency due to catastrophe on Friday, to have “all necessary resources” to put out the flames.
In December 2022, the same region of Valparaiso suffered strong forest fires that left two dead. Fire – which is usually intentionally set – spreads quickly due to construction in unauthorized areas.
Boric said that authorities are “investigating the possible intentionality” of the current burning.
Last year the fires raged in southern Chilileaving 27 dead and 450,000 hectares destroyed.
“Without precedents”
The mayor of Viña del Mar, Macarena Ripamonti, was surprised by the magnitude of the fires.
“We are facing an unprecedented catastrophe, a situation of this magnitude had not happened in the region of Valparaiso”, he noted.
The routes to these Pacific beaches were closed on Friday after noon, and several fire outbreaks expanded very quickly, burning populated areas, where alternative transportation routes collapsed. thousands of people trying to evacuate.
According to a report from the National Forestry Corporation (Conaf), the largest fire is in the Peñuelas Lake Reservenext to the main highway to the area, which has burned more than 8,000 hectares.
A heat wave with maximum temperatures is overwhelming the Southern American Cone these days, where the natural climate phenomenon of El Niño is becoming more acute. due to global warming caused by human activity, according to specialists.
Alerts for persistent suffocating heat are in effect from this week and next in areas of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil, as well as in Chile.
