Forest fires leave 24 dead in Chile and almost a thousand injured

The constitutional state of catastrophe is maintained in three regions of Chili, which have been affected by forest fires for five days. So far, the authorities have recorded 24 dead, 997 injured and 800 homes due to the emergency.

The number of deaths “has risen to 24, because a person died in Angol, who was hospitalized and who unfortunately died,” said the Undersecretary of the Interior, Manuel Monsalve, on Sunday.

Favored by moderate and strong winds and temperatures above 40ºC, the fire has devastated some 270,000 hectares in a region located some 500 km south of Santiago.

According to the National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (Senapred), the fires that are in combat went from 87 to 51.

“We are experiencing a small window of improvement in weather conditions during Sunday and Monday. That means that we are not experiencing extreme high temperatures,” Monsalve said, but warned that thermometers could return to close to 40ºC on Tuesday.

The president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, mobilized today to the Biobío region.

The president also attended the wake of a firefighter who died fighting the fires in the town of Coronel.

“The whole of Chile cries with you. I am here to tell you that you are not alone, that Yesenia’s (Muñoz, the deceased firefighter) family will not be alone,” Boric said.

The president thanked in his social networks the international support, coordinated with Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, the United States and Mexico.

“We have just sent a plane to Chile with a contingent from the Military Emergency Unit to help put out and control the fires that are plaguing the country. All our support for the Chilean people”, tweeted the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez.

(YO)