Wildfires raging in the coastal hills of central Chile since Friday have killed at least 46 people and destroyed more than 1,000 homes, with many more feared dead, the national government said.
The fires are engulfing Viña del Mar and Valparaíso, two cities that form a sprawling area home to more than a million people on Chile’s central coastline, about 75 miles northeast of the capital, Santiago.
Just after midday, President Gabriel Boric flew over the area by helicopter and said his government had worked to “secure the most resources” in Chile’s history to fight fires during the country’s wildfire season , which usually hits during the Southern Hemisphere summer and peaks in February.
“I assure you all that we will be there as a government to help you recover,” he wrote on social media platform X. Later, he said the confirmed death toll had risen to 46 and warned, “the number of victims is certain to increase”.
On Friday night, President Boric issued a constitutional decree granting his government additional powers to fight fires.
The fires in Chile come as Colombia also battles blazes in the mountains around Bogota, the capital, as dozens of other fires have burned across the country in the hottest January in three decades. Climatologists have linked the extreme dryness there and the fires to the temperature trends affecting South America.
Various Chilean agencies, as well as the country’s air force, have deployed 92 planes to fly over the fires by dropping water. The government has also issued a steady stream of evacuation notices, interspersed with calls for calm.
Makeshift shelters and support centers have been set up in several cities, with local authorities asking for donations of drinking water, mattresses, blankets and food.
The interior ministry imposed a curfew at 9pm on Saturday in Viña del Mar as well as several nearby towns.
On Saturday morning, Chile’s Interior Minister Carolina Toja said a 17-year-old girl was among the dead.
Ms Tohá warned that the death toll was likely to rise once authorities gained access to the affected areas. He added that 92 fires were still burning across the country – 29 of which were still being fought and 40 of which had been brought under control – with more than 160 square miles of land already destroyed by the fires.
The mayor of Viña del Mar, Macarena Ripamonti, said that, in addition to the confirmed victims, 249 people were still missing.
Eight areas of the city have been evacuated, including hospital patients.
This January was the second hottest on record in Santiago. The hottest was 2017, a year also affected by the El Niño weather phenomenon, which usually brings high temperatures and heavy rainfall to the Pacific coast of South America.
While forest fires hit central and southern Chile every summer, Chile’s National Forestry Commission regional director for Valparaiso, Leonardo Monder, said one of the fires appeared to have been started deliberately and was running toward Viña del Mar.
The Valparaiso City Council has launched a criminal investigation, officials said.
