Fire in northern Chile leaves 100 homes affected

At least 100 homes were consumed by the flames and 400 people were left homeless this Monday during a fire that affected the irregular Laguna Verde camp located in the city of Iquique, in northern Chile.

This was confirmed by the presidential delegate of the Tarapacá region, Miguel Ángel Quezada, who lamented the loss of citizens’ belongings and homes and reported that there are children and older adults among the victims.

“The families are being evacuated and we have made ourselves available to collaborate with those who have been affected,” added the Minister of Housing and Urban Planning, Felipe Ward, through his Twitter account.

For now, the authorities have ruled out the presence of fatalities or serious injuries as well as the possibility that the fire was intentional, attributing it to the extremely hot conditions that were recorded during the day.

The fire started during the afternoon and the flames spread in a few hours, which led the National Emergency Office of the Ministry of the Interior (Onemi) to declare a yellow alert and issue a report warning about the “presence of irregular homes and the difficult access to the place ”.

The fire department deployed several units that worked for several hours and reported that the overcrowded conditions of the homes, the narrow passageways of the settlement and the lack of a water network made it difficult to extinguish the flames.

Laguna Verde is an irregular settlement of houses and shacks located in Iquique, the first city after crossing the border with Peru and Bolivia.

For thousands of migrants, this town is the first stop where they temporarily settle before continuing to other cities or trying to regularize their situation.

The authorities also added that at least two schools will be set up as shelters to house the more than 400 people who were left homeless. (I)