112 People Dead, Dozens of Individuals Missing Amid Raging Wildfires in Chile
The raging wildfires in Chile are so wild that they killed hundreds of people and destroyed thousands of homes. Many are also missing as the government seeks to survive the catastrophe.
112 People Dead, Dozens of Individuals Missing Amid Raging Wildfires in Chile
Wildfires in Chile Killed 112 People
On Sunday, firefighters in central Chile fought to contain intense forest fires that have destroyed entire towns and claimed the lives of 112 people. At the same time, President Gabriel Boric warned that the nation faces a "tragedy of very great magnitude," per Reuters.
Authorities believe that hundreds of people are still unaccounted for, which fuels concerns that the death toll will rise when more remains are discovered on hillsides and in homes that wildfires have entirely destroyed.
A wildfire is an uncontrolled fire that burns in wildland vegetation. It can occur in forests, grasslands, savannas, and other ecosystems.
The boundaries of two major tourist destinations, Vina del Mar and Valparaiso, were now in danger due to the fires that intensified on Friday. More than a million people live in the cities' urban expansion to the west of Santiago, the capital.
Reuters obtained drone images in the Vina del Mar area showing entire neighborhoods burned and people searching amid the ruins of burned-out buildings with collapsing corrugated iron roofs. Cars that had caught fire were all over the streets.
"The wind was terrible, the heat scorching. There was no respite. People dispersed everywhere," said Pedro Quezada, a local builder in the Valparaiso region, standing amid the charred debris of his destroyed home.
Authorities in Chile have instituted a 9 p.m. curfew in the most affected districts and deployed military personnel to assist firefighters in containing fires. At the same time, water was dropped from helicopters to put out the flames from above.
According to the state coroner for Chile, the Legal Medical Service, 112 persons have perished in the flames. As of Saturday, 51 people had died.
Earlier in the day, Boric warned Chile to brace itself for more terrible news, declaring two days of national mourning to begin on Monday.
Unprecedented Catastrophe and The Worst Diseaster Since 2010
Almost 30 homes were destroyed by the flames in the communities of Estrella and Navidad, southwest of the city, forcing residents to evacuate close to Pichilemu, a popular surfing destination.
According to CONAF, the Chilean National Forest Authority, several thousand hectares have burned in Valparaiso alone.
Images from trapped motorists have gone viral online, showing mountains in flames at the end of the famous "Route 68," a road traveled by thousands of tourists to reach the Pacific coast.
"We're facing an unprecedented catastrophe; a situation of this magnitude has never happened in the Valparaiso region," said Vina del Mar Mayor Macarena Ripamonti.
In addition to Valparaiso, firefighters and emergency services personnel were battling blazes in the center and south of Chile, including O'Higgins, Maule, Biobio, La Araucania, and Los Lagos.
"This was an inferno," Rodrigo Pulgar, who lost his home in the inland town of El Olivar, told AFP. "I tried to help my neighbor... my house was starting to burn behind us. It was raining ash."
Firefighters and emergency services personnel were combating wildfires in Valparaiso, O'Higgins, Maule, Biobio, La Araucania, and Los Lagos, among the towns in central and southern Chile.
"This was an inferno," Rodrigo Pulgar, who lost his home in the inland town of El Olivar, told AFP. "I tried to help my neighbor... my house was starting to burn behind us. It was raining ash."
While flames are not unusual in the summer months in the Southern Hemisphere, their lethality makes them the biggest national calamity to strike the nation since the 2010 earthquake, which claimed around 500 lives, per Reuters.
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