Death toll from relentless forest fires in Chile increases to 99

Chili It is fighting for the third day the deadliest forest fires in its recent history, with several points burning in the Valparaíso region, where at least 99 deaths have already been recorded and hundreds of people are missing in overpopulated areas devastated by the flames.

In the city of Viña del Mar, about 120 km northwest of Santiago and one of the most affected areas, survivors find themselves without shelter or neighbors among streets full of burned rubble. ”I left my house, closed the door and left. I didn’t know any more because I went to the center of Viña del Mar,” Lilián Rojas, a 67-year-old retiree, described to AFP, showing her pink dress to point out: “This is now the only thing I have.”

On Sunday afternoon, the Legal Medical Service, the state entity designated by the Presidency to provide official reports of deaths, reported in a statement that the fatal toll due to the emergency escalated to 99 people, “32 of them identified.”

In order to limit traffic in affected areas “and facilitate relief work for the victims and the removal of the deceased,” a new curfew was implemented in four communes of Valparaíso, from 6:00 p.m. local time (9:00 p.m. GMT) until 10:00 a.m. local on Monday (1:00 p.m. GMT), announced the Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá.

The previous toll given by President Gabriel Boric was 64 deaths but the figure “will grow significantly,” warned the Chilean president from Quilpué, a devastated commune about 90 km from Santiago.

With several fires extinct near the most populated hills where the fire caused havoc on Friday, residential hills are beginning to be reduced to ashes and long rows of charred cars in the streets. It is unknown if they are parked vehicles or those of people who were trying to evacuate and were left stuck in traffic, trying to escape under a shower of forest embers.

“It is the biggest tragedy we have had since the 2010 earthquake,” said Boric, referring to the 8.8 magnitude earthquake, followed by a tsunami, that occurred on February 27 of that year and left more than 500 dead.

– A fast fire –

To describe the aggressiveness and speed with which the fires spread on Friday afternoon over populated areas, Rojas said that the fire surprised them in a matter of minutes.

They saw smoke from a distant light, he went “for a while” to his room to watch television and when he came out “to look outside, people were already running,” he recalled. “Time stopped, I don’t know if it was at 4 or 5 in the afternoon (…) Firefighters did not arrive until everything was consumed. “Not a single house was left,” the retiree, who lives with a pension of 206,000 pesos, about $228 a month, summed up the horror.

– Moisture against fire –

The weather conditions in the last few hours improved with a typical phenomenon on the Pacific coast, which produces a lot of cloudiness, high humidity and decreases the heat, “which helps cool the fire” although “there will be high temperatures until Tuesday,” he said. Minister Tohá.

On the third day of the fire crisis, more than 30 fires are still active while new preventive evacuations were ordered for field areas very similar in geography and affected by drought, such as Til Til, 60 km north of Santiago.

In the Valparaíso region, known for its tourist beaches and wine production, 17 fire brigades, 1,300 soldiers and civilian volunteers are deployed to help fight the flames, but also the victims who lost everything.

– “Pray for Chile” –

The Chilean fires led Pope Francis to refer to this Chilean catastrophe. Leaning out the window of the apostolic palace, the pontiff asked to pray “for the dead and injured in the devastating fires in Chili”, after the Sunday Angelus in St. Peter’s Square.

The High Representative for Foreign Affairs of the European Union (EU), Josep Borrell, offered support to Chile and noted that this catastrophe recalled “the ravages of drought and climate,” he indicated in a message.

In the last decade, episodes of mega forest fires have multiplied in Chile related to extreme weather, high temperatures, a prolonged drought, construction of homes in unlicensed sites and, in a large percentage, causes due to human negligence.

A heat wave is overwhelming the Southern American Cone these days, where the natural climate phenomenon of El Niño is exacerbated by global warming caused by human activity, according to specialists.