This is a particularly sad assessment and is unfortunately only temporary. Forest fires in central and southern Chile have killed at least 51 people, President Gabriel Boric announced Saturday.
After calming down, the fire has started again in the tourist region of Valparaiso, where the famous seaside resort of Viña del Mar is located, whose beaches are marked by extreme temperatures during this period of austral summer. Fanned by violent winds, the flames ravaged about 43,000 hectares on Saturday, particularly along the Pacific coast, according to Interior Minister Carolina Toha. A total of 92 fires were active at noon, with 40 under control.
An “unprecedented disaster”
The number of victims is constantly increasing. The forensic medicine service had already registered 45 deaths, but “six others died in medical institutions,” Interior Ministry Undersecretary Manuel Monsalve said Saturday. “It is an unprecedented disaster, the Valparaiso region has never experienced a situation of this magnitude,” lamented Macarena Ripamonti, mayor of Viña del Mar, who was particularly affected.
According to the Interior Ministry’s undersecretary, Manuel Monsalve, officials have instituted a nighttime curfew from 9 p.m. as a “priority” to facilitate the supply of fuel to emergency teams. New calls for evacuation were launched as it was not possible to know how many residents remained at home.
State of exception declared
Firefighters have been battling dozens of homes in the central regions of Valparaiso and O’Higgins since Friday, but also Maule, Biobio, La Araucania and Los Lagos in the south. “The priority is the fire in the Valparaiso region, due to its proximity to urban areas,” the interior minister declared.
President Boric declared a state of emergency on Friday so that the 43,000 hectares of forest on the Pacific coast, in particular, have “all the necessary tools” to deal with the progress of the fire. Fourteen ships and five helicopters were mobilized to fight the fire. In addition to the human toll, between 3,000 and 6,000 homes were damaged or destroyed in Chile’s worst wildfires in a decade, according to the undersecretary.
Heat wave due to El Nino
As of Wednesday, temperatures in central Chile and the capital Santiago are nearing 40 degrees. “These episodes are becoming more and more frequent, which is why we see historical temperature records every year,” Pablo Lobos Stefani, in charge of fire protection at the Chilean channel, explained to CNN. Chile’s National Forestry Office CONAF.
This heatwave is a result of the El Niño climate phenomenon currently affecting the southern cone of Latin America in mid-summer, which has made wildfires worse due to global warming. After Chile and Colombia, there is a threat of heat wave in Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil in the coming days.
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