“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said 63-year-old Yvonne Guzman.
San Diego:
Wildfires raging in central and southern Chile have killed at least 19 people, officials said on Saturday, warning that the death toll could rise as rescuers searched burned homes and the fires continued to spread.
President Gabriel Boric ordered a state of emergency over the “catastrophe” of fires, as dry conditions in the region and temperatures soaring to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) exacerbated the crisis.
The fires, centered on the tourist region of Valparaiso on Chile’s central coastline, have burned through thousands of hectares of forest and shrouded coastal cities in thick gray smoke, forcing people to flee their homes.
Authorities announced a curfew in both areas on Saturday morning until noon (1500 GMT) to facilitate the movement of evacuees and emergency personnel.
Interior Minister Carolina Toha said on Saturday that “19 people had died”, noting that the death toll was “very provisional” as rescuers had not yet been able to access some affected areas.
She said there were 92 fires across the country, burning 43,000 hectares (106,000 acres).
“The top priority is the fires in the Valparaiso area because that area is close to the city and we have several fires there,” Toha said.
She said no more fire vehicles are currently needed because the area “is not very large. It’s very dense, but it’s not very extensive.”
AFP reporters saw entire houses burned overnight on hillsides around the coastal city of Viña del Mar on Saturday morning.
Some of the dead could be seen lying on the road, covered with sheets.
The area is about 1.5 hours northwest of the capital Santiago and is a popular tourist destination during the hot summer months.
Fires have destroyed nearly 30 homes in the towns of Estrella and Navidad, southwest of the capital, and residents near the surfing resort of Pichilemu were forced to evacuate.
“I have never seen anything like this,” Yvonne Guzman, 63, who fled with her elderly mother as the fire began approaching her home in Quilpue, told AFP , and ended up stuck in traffic for hours.
“It was very distressing because we had evacuated the house but we couldn’t move on. All these people were trying to get out but they couldn’t move,” she said.
‘extreme’
“All efforts are being made to put out the forest fires,” Borik said in a message posted on social media platform X on Friday.
About 7,000 hectares of land burned in Valparaíso alone, according to Chile’s national forest agency CONAF, which called the fires “extreme.”
Photos taken by stranded drivers have gone viral, showing mountains ablaze at the end of the famous “Route 68,” the road used by thousands of tourists to reach Pacific Coast beaches.
In addition to Valparaíso, firefighters and emergency services are battling 10 outbreaks affecting the central and southern regions of the country, including O’Higgins, Maule, Bio Bio, La Alaukani Ya and Los Lagos.
On Friday, authorities closed the road connecting Valparaiso to the capital Santiago because a huge mushroom cloud “reduced visibility.”
The fires were caused by summer heatwaves and droughts caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon affecting southern South America, with scientists warning that a warming planet increases the risk of natural disasters such as heatwaves and fires.
Heatwaves are also likely to hit Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil in the coming days as Chile and Colombia deal with rising temperatures.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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