(Santiago de Chile) The Chilean authorities announced on Friday that they feared a death toll of around ten following violent forest fires which led President Gabriel Boric to declare a state of emergency.
“We have preliminary information reporting several people dead, around ten,” announced Sofía Gonzáles Cortés, the state representative in the Valparaiso region (center).
The Chilean president has declared a state of exception in order to “have all the necessary means” to fight the fires which are progressing in the center and south of the Latin American country.
The fires are spreading particularly in the tourist regions of Vina del Mar and Valparaiso, where they threaten hundreds of homes and have led to forced evacuations.
PHOTO JAVIER TORRES, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Fire burns houses in Viña del Mar.
In the Valparaiso region alone, the fire devoured 480 hectares, according to CONAF, the Chilean national forestry office.
The heatwave and drought, which result from the El Niño climatic phenomenon, is currently affecting the southern cone of Latin America, in the middle of summer, causing forest fires worsened by global warming.
After Chile and Colombia, the heat wave risks sweeping towards Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil in the coming days.