Curfew decreed in fire zones in Chile

Chile announced a night curfew in the areas hardest hit by forest fires in the south-central part of the country to prevent robberies, while a new failure in the American Ten Tanker plane, capable of discharging 36,000 liters of water, makes it difficult to fight the flames.

The restriction of movement, which It will enter into force at midnight on Friday and will be in force until 05:00 a.m.concerns 28 municipalities in three regions in which President Gabriel Boric declared a state of catastrophe: Biobío, Ñuble and La Araucanía.

In La Araucanía, General Rubén Castillo, military chief of that region, indicated that The curfew in 12 municipalities implies restrictions on public transport “mainly in the province of Malleco”.

This is one of the most critical areas due to clashes between radical Mapuche groups and state forceswithin the framework of a historical conflict for the claim of indigenous lands.

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

Boric said Wednesday that he considered “necessary” to establish curfews to guarantee security.

“President Boric has said that we have to do everything in our power to deliver the facilities to brigade members and firefighters and, on the other hand, the security of families, that we are not going to leave them alone,” said the minister. of Social Development, Giorgio Jackson.

“A bit of tranquility”

Favored by moderate and strong winds, infernal temperatures of more than 40ºC and a drought that has dragged on for 13 years, Forest fires continue to increase in Chile since their start on February 1.

Currently, of the 323 assets, 90 are being fought.

The authorities raised the alerts for this Thursday and Friday due to the risk that the fires spread to other regions due to the high temperatures forecast.

The flames, which have left at least 24 dead and some 2,196 injured, have devastated more than 343,000 hectares in the Ñuble, Biobío, La Araucanía and Maule regions, an area equivalent to a third of the territory of Puerto Rico.

The wave of forest fires has completely destroyed 1,205 homes and left 5,570 people homelessaccording to the official balance.

The terrible odyssey of a family that plunged up to their necks into their neighbor’s pool to save themselves from the fires in Chile

Ivonne Rivas, mayoress of Tomé, one of the municipalities in which the curfew was established, stressed to Radio Cooperativa the importance of “giving some peace of mind to these families who have had a terrible time and are still having a bad time” .

Since the beginning of the week, opposition parties, mayors and organizations such as the Chilean Wood Corporation (Corma), which brings together forestry companies, have requested communal curfews.

About twenty people were arrested for their responsibility at the start of the fires.

The Ten Tanker in trouble

more than 5,600 firefighters and forest brigade memberswith the help of contingents from Mexico, Colombia, Spain and Argentina, among other countries, continue trying to extinguish the wave of fires.

The DC-10 Ten Tanker, the US firefighting aircraft capable of discharging 36,000 liters of water, presented problems again on Thursday, after it resumed operations after a previous mechanical failure.

The plane, the largest of its type available, arrived in Chile on Monday and began operations that same day. A faulty valve on his engine put him out of action on Tuesday afternoon. It was expected that it could only work again on Saturday.

But everything went faster and on Thursday it took off to drop water on the fires in the Biobío region. However, at the end of the afternoon it presented damage again.

The current crisis is increasingly similar to that of the beginning of 2017when a chain of fires devastated some 460,000 hectares and left 11 dead, nearly 6,000 injured and more than 1,500 homes destroyed.

The outbreaks had also started then in agricultural areas and forests, and advanced to populated areas. (YO)