At least 10 people have been killed and many have been forced to evacuate their homes after a fire broke out in the tourist town of Valparaiso.
Chile has declared a state of emergency as it battles wildfires in the country's center that have killed at least 10 people.
Announcing the measures, President Gabriel Boric wrote on X that “all forces will be deployed to fight the forest fires,” adding that emergency services would gather on Saturday to assess the situation.
The fires have destroyed thousands of hectares of forest since Friday, blanketing coastal cities in a thick haze of gray smoke and forcing people to flee their homes in the central regions of Viña del Mar and Valparaíso.
A representative from Valparaiso state said at least 10 people were killed.
“The wind speed is close to 40 or 50 kmph.” [25-31 miles] said Leonardo Moder, director of the National Forestry Corporation in Valparaiso.
“This wind is difficult because it carries around lit leaves, branches and pieces of wood, each of which creates a new small fire that grows into more fires,” he added. .
The fires were caused by the summer heat wave and drought that is affecting southern South America due to the El Niño phenomenon, with scientists warning that global warming is increasing the risk of heatwaves, fires and other natural disasters. are doing.
The fire destroyed nearly 30 homes in the towns of Estrella and Navidad, southwest of the capital, and forced evacuations near the surfing resort of Pichilemu.
“I've never seen anything like this,” Yvonne Guzman, 63, told AFP news agency. When the flames began closing in on her home in Kilpue, she fled with her elderly girlfriend's mother, but she found herself stuck in traffic for hours.
“It's very disappointing that we can't move forward even though we evacuated our homes. There are a lot of people who are trying to escape and can't move,” she said.
Chile's national forestry agency, CONAF, said the fire was “extremely large”, with about 7,000 hectares (17,300 acres) already burned in Valparaiso alone.
Images taken by the trapped driver have gone viral online, showing mountains ablaze at the end of the famous Route 68, used by thousands of tourists to get to Pacific Coast beaches. is reflected.
On Friday, authorities closed the road connecting Valparaiso to the capital, Santiago, as a huge mushroom cloud “reduced visibility.”
A heatwave threatens to hit Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil in the coming days as Chile and Colombia battle rising temperatures.
