The fires that caused terrible destruction in the tourist province of Valparaiso in Chile and left behind at least 131 dead have been “extinguished”, the fire department announced yesterday Wednesday.

About 2,000 firefighters brought the multiple fires that had been raging since last Friday around the spa town of Viña del Mar, 120 kilometers northwest of Santiago, under full control.

The country’s president, Gabriel Boric, called the fires the “biggest tragedy” the country has experienced since the 2010 earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 500 people.

The authorities have not released a specific number of missing persons.

In the fire-affected area, residents organize night patrols, as they complain that the destruction was due to arson.

“My family is in a safe place, I preferred to stay here. The lower side is still full of trees and we see a lot of people going up and down,” Peruvian worker Miguel Angel Reto, 42, told AFP.

Along with nationals of Chile, Venezuela, Haiti and Ecuador, Mr. Reto is settled irregularly in the hills around Viña del Mar, an area known as the United Nations.

The fires destroyed their wooden structures, but they returned with the intention of rebuilding them.

The authorities believe that many fires were indeed due to arson. According to official figures, some 15,000 homes were destroyed.

During his visit to Viña del Mar the day before Tuesday, President Boric warned that “there are some who try to set fires, we will find them and send them behind bars”.

In the midst of summer in the summer hemisphere and a continuing heat wave, Chile is still affected by several more fires in its central and southern parts, according to the national agency for prevention and intervention in the event of disasters (SENAPRED).

All those killed in the fires lived in Valparaiso.