Intense heat and strong winds hampered the efforts of firefighters to extinguish the flames which blazed through 8,500 hectares of land in central and southern Chile
Eighteen people have been killed as wildfires ravaged parts of Chile, as the country faces a blistering heat wave.
Central and southern Chile were devastated by wildfires on Sunday, January 18, which have blazed through 8,500 hectares (21,000 acres) of land, the Associated Press reported.
Intense heat and strong winds hampered the efforts of firefighters to extinguish the flames. Temperatures soared, topping 38C on Sunday. The weather is expected to persist through Monday.
“Weather conditions for coming hours are not good and indicate extreme temperatures,” said Interior Minister Álvaro Elizalde.
In addition to the surging temperatures the country continues to reel from a yearslong drought.
Chilean President Gabriel Boric declared a state of catastrophe in the central Biobio and the neighbouring Ñuble regions, around 500 kilometers (300 miles) south of the capital Santiago.
The designation allows the suspension of constitutional rights and greater coordination with the military to address the over two dozen active wildfires.
Boric said in a press conference that the government expected its initial death toll and damage to rise as the extent of the loss came into focus. It has been reported 18 people have died and 300 houses have been destroyed.
Boric said the total number of affected homes in the Biobio region to be “certainly more than a thousand, just so far.”
“The first priority, as you know, in these emergencies is always to fight and extinguish the fire. But we cannot forget, at any time, that there are human tragedies here, families who are suffering,” he said. “These are difficult times.”
The press conference comes after local authorities said fires ravaged the hillsides and prompted 50,000 people to evacuate for hours Sunday as, with help nowhere to be found.
“Dear President Boric, from the bottom of my heart, I have been here for four hours, a community is burning and there is no (government) presence,” Rodrigo Vera, the mayor of the small coastal town of Penco in the Biobio region, said on a local radio station earlier earlier in the day. “How can a minister do nothing but call me to tell me that the military is going to arrive at some point?”
Residents said the fires took them by surprise, trapping many in their homes.
“Many people didn’t evacuate. They stayed in their houses because they thought the fire would stop at the edge of the forest,” said John Guzmán, 55, surveying the scene in Penco. “It was completely out of control. No one expected it.”
“We fled running, with the kids, in the dark,” said Juan Lagos, 52, also in Penco.
Cars, a school and a church were burnt, while charred bodies were found across fields, homes, along roads and in cars.
“From what we can see, there are people who died … and we knew them well,” said Víctor Burboa, 54. “Everyone here knew them.”
Wildfires afflict central and southern Chile every summer, typically reaching a peak in February.
In 2024, fires tore across Chile’s central coastline and at least 130 people lost their lives in the country’s deadliest natural disaster since a earthquake in 2010.
