the despair of Chileans affected by the deadliest fires in the country’s history

The Valparaiso region on Chile’s central coast remains in a state of emergency Monday morning. Chile has declared two days of national mourning due to forest fires which struck several urban areas, sowing death and desolation.

Entire residential areas devastated, cars burned, nearly 26,000 hectares reduced to ashes… These are the deadliest fires ever recorded in Chile. Since Friday, they have ravaged the tourist coastal region of Valparaiso in the center of the country and have left at least 112 dead, a toll which is likely to rise on Monday February 5 as firefighters continue to fight around forty active outbreaks. A curfew is applied in four of the most affected municipalities to allow evacuations, the movement of aid, but also to avoid looting.

Hundreds of families lost everything: their belongings, their homes, were completely devoured by the flames. This is particularly the case of Marcela who shows on Chilean television the extent of the damage.

“Indescribable”

Two blackened walls still stand but on the ground there is only a pile of metal sheets, only its oven has not been completely burned. “It’s like there was an atomic bomb. It’s indescribable, no one really realizes what happened.”says Marcela who still has in mind the “giant flames” in the street, when the fire arrived.

“Neighbors burned to death trying to escape.”

The Chilean journalist standing next to her indicates that Marcela’s brother is one of the victims. “My brother was the pillar of our familyshe agrees, her voice tight. But we must continue to live, my brother has always been a fighter. He left us this teaching: we must be able to rise in the face of adversity.”

The intentional track is not ruled out

Solidarity is being organized in the most affected communities, neighbors are helping to clear up, others are offering food or distributing water, because many of these affected families were already in a fragile situation before the fire which hit them. “The first sectors to be affected are precarious dwellings which have been established illegally on the outskirts of the city, and which are very exposed on these slopes with trees sensitive to fireexplains Joan Saavedra, urban planner in Valparaiso. This first line was affected then the flames advanced to more formal neighborhoods”. It is in one of its neighborhoods that Joan and her family live. They saw the fire pass very close to their house. “The fire was at 300 meters from our residential area and we had to evacuate.”

At the end of the day on Sunday, a few outbreaks were still active, the bulk of the fires having been controlled by firefighters after hours of fighting the flames. Investigations have been opened to determine the origin of these fires, and the intentional possibility has not been ruled out.