Fifteen minutes. That was how long it took for Priscila Rivero to leave her house and leave her children and nephews safe at her mother-in-law’s house. When she returned, the flames had completely consumed the walls of her family’s home for the past 30 years.
“The fire had jumped to our hill, had crossed the road and entered our houses from behind.”, he tells The Associated Press. It penetratedin the middle burning the houses in that area, the highest ones, and our house literally disappeared”.
“It was already completely on fire, fire was coming out of the windows.“, it states. Rivero lived there with her husband and her two children. Her parents, aged 77 and 72, and her niece, aged 20, lived in the house below.
Only the cans from the ceiling remained. She lived on the third floor.
Rivero, 42 years old and a chef by profession, who returned to look for his parents to get them out of there also managed to help an elderly woman who was alone in a building. “Several of our neighbors’ houses had already burned there.”.
“All the houses were burning around us.”
He was literally left with what he was wearing. Some cooking clogs and a dress for hanging around the house. One of her children came out in pajamas.
On her second trip back, 40 minutes later, she was picking up her husband who was going up to their home in Miraflores Alto, a hill in Viña del Mar, one of the areas most affected by the fires. They found her house surrounded by fire trucks trying to prevent the fire from reaching a liquefied gas station.
Thousands of homes have been affected, partially damaged or destroyed by the fires that have devastated the Valparaíso region since Friday and have hit sectors of Viña del Mar, Quilpué, Villa Alemana and Limache hard.
On his block, there are at least ten burned houses and in his closest family another five destroyed houses. “The poorest sectors of Viña del Mar were burned, all the” or irregular housing sectors, laments the woman.
His brother who lives on the hill across the street “He escaped the flames by running because the fire was engulfing his house and that of his wife’s relatives.”. In the flight she lost sight ofto his wife and son” and they only met at 2:00 in the morning. She lost her phone while fleeing, but her antennas were also burned. “There was no signal, the messages did not arrive”He remembers the anguish of that Friday night.
With his eyes partially burned, his brother managed to escape from a part of Villa Independencia that the next morning dawned with several rows of burned cars. “In ten blocks, he saw many dead people in the street, at least eight people; That left him in shock and he came downstairs very scared.”.
Despite everything, Riveros is happy that her entire family is well.
Up to 18 people from his family gathered at his mother-in-law’s house, in a 50-square-meter apartment on Friday night. Some “we had to sleep sitting around the table”, he relates. The next day, they moved to a house left for them, “but the smoke arrived again and they told us that we had to evacuate the sector”. From there they went to some friends’ house and divided up the group.
“We have received a lot of love from our friends”, with calls, messages, help, cleaning supplies, food and some monetary contributions. She says she is grateful. “We have received a lot of love”.
We believe in God andWe trust that everything is done with a purpose.” and surely something must be learned and strengthened, rise “from the ashes, literally”.
Marco Delgadillo, who lives in the El Olivar sector in Viña del Mar, one of the most affected areas, also kept what he had said, “without anything, nothing, nothing, nothing”. Only with the consolation that her family was not there and her daughter saved her life thanks to a daring bus driver.
“The smoke intoxicated me, vision was impossible; Where were you going, it was chaos, there was no place where there were no flames”, until they found a soccer field with a firewall that helped him save himself.
He will never forget seeing Villa Independencia, the area where he lives, full of flames, devastated. One of his friends burned to death for not being able to leave his business in which he had worked all his life. Another close friend also lost his store that he had worked hard to build for more than 30 years.
He tells his story to the AP as he removes the rubble of a house of which nothing remains and begins the task of reconstruction. “We have to think about reactivating ourselves, rebuilding, we have no other choice.”says Delgadillo, with the resilience of someone who knows that there is no other option.
He says at least 20 people he knows have died.
“This is the worst thing that has happened in Chile, worse than an earthquake, everything”, he laments. “Lives were lost here, material things can be recovered”he reflects, “but stories were lost here and that cannot be recovered”.
And that is why, from the experience of having narrowly escaped, he gives some advice to his neighbors.
When he evacuated it was almost too late. “When I came out I didn’t realize that no one was there. Don’t think about taking things out, evacuate. The material is recovered… But to save a radio you can lose your life, in a minute“, he says, pointing out that it was difficult for him to burn his eyes.
“I used to be one of those people who think you have to save things, it’s the worst decision; If the fire comes, it starts”.
And he concludes: “Alive you can help others”.
More than 120 people have lost their lives so far in the fires that have devastated the Valparaíso region since Friday.
According to the authorities, one of the difficulties has been getting people to leave their homes and evacuate when the alert messages arrive.
Source: Gestion
Ricardo is a renowned author and journalist, known for his exceptional writing on top-news stories. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he is known for his ability to deliver breaking news and insightful analysis on the most pressing issues of the day.
