Firefighters work, this Sunday (5), to contain dozens of forest fires in Chile, which left 24 dead and 997 injured, in addition to consuming about 270,000 hectares – increasing six times compared to that registered on Friday (3).
The area burned over the past five days is roughly the size of the US state of Rhode Island and includes the complete destruction of 800 homes, according to official reports released on Sunday.
International aid, expected to arrive on Sunday, includes planes and specialized firefighting teams. Spain, for example, sent a plane with 50 crew members, including specialists, military personnel and drone pilots.
In addition to homes, the intense fires burned forests and agricultural properties located in three regions near the center of the country’s Pacific coast. shelters.
President Gabriel Boric’s government issued emergency declarations for the southern rural regions of Biobío, Ñuble and Araucanía in an effort to speed up relief.
Thirteen dead people were found in Biobío, which, like Ñuble and Araucanía, is home to extensive forests and farms that grow grapes and other fruit for export.
According to the undersecretary of the Interior, Manuel Monsalve, 26 of the 997 injured were in serious condition. President Gabriel Boric attended the wake of a firefighter in the city of Coronel. “All of Chile mourns with you. I am here to tell you that you are not alone,” the president said.
A heat wave has hampered efforts to extinguish the flames, as temperatures in the most affected areas exceeded 40ºC.
This Sunday morning, the drop in temperatures seemed to give relief to the 5,300 brigade members deployed to fight the fire.
“We are in a small window of improvement in weather conditions between today and tomorrow, which means that we are not experiencing extreme temperatures,” said Monsalve, warning that thermometers could hit 40ºC again on Tuesday (7).
About 260 fires are burning, officials said, with 28 of them considered especially dangerous.
The situation, far from being under control, is reminiscent of the catastrophe that occurred in the region in 2017, when 11 died and around 6,000 were left homeless in the fires that burned more than 450,000 hectares and destroyed 1,500 homes. As in that year, fires started in agricultural and forest areas and progressed to threaten and destroy populated areas.
For experts, strong heat waves like the one that hits Chile are related to the worsening of the climate crisis —which multiplies the occurrence of extreme events on the planet.
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