(Concepción) The violent fires that have been raging in south-central Chile for a week threaten other regions of the country due to a new heat wave, authorities announced on Tuesday.
A red alert has been issued in parts of the Los Rios region in southern Chile, near the towns of Corral and Valdivia.
The forest fires, which have killed 24 people and injured 2,180 since Thursday according to an official report, could also affect the region of the capital Santiago, further north. Authorities had previously reported 26 deaths.
A new heat wave with temperatures exceeding 37 degrees Celsius is expected until next Friday.
“A very complex situation could arise from a climatic point of view”, assured the Under-Secretary of the Interior, Manuel Monsalve, referring to the possibility of new outbreaks of fire.
Firefighters were battling 82 of the 309 active fires across the country on Tuesday. The regions of Biobio, Ñuble and La Araucania, in the center-south, are the most affected and have been placed in a state of disaster by the government.
Since the start of the fires a week ago, the flames have ravaged more than 290,000 hectares and destroyed 1,150 homes, according to the latest report from the National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (Senapred).
Fifteen people were arrested for their possible responsibility in starting the fires against which more than 5,600 firefighters are fighting with the help of the international community.
The United States, Spain, Argentina and Mexico have sent material resources (planes, trucks, helicopters, drones, etc.) and human resources (fire experts, soldiers, firefighters, etc.).
France announced on Tuesday that it would send “in the next few hours” 80 firefighters and rescuers from Civil Security.
“The most dramatic thing is to see the situation of people who find themselves without their homes, without their families, without their animals and totally destitute”, testifies Macarena Fernandez, a 31-year-old volunteer firefighter who arrived four days ago in Santa Juana, in the Biobio region.
“Firefighters here (Santa Juana) work about 18 hours a day, sleep very little, put their heart and soul into it,” says Danilo Figueroa, another volunteer firefighter.
The fifty-year-old says that some firefighters learned while they were fighting the flames that their house had burned down. “Even like that, with nothing left, they don’t give up,” he says.