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Concepcion (Chile) (AFP) – The forest fires that affect the south-central zone of Chile leave at least 24 people dead, 997 injured and have completely destroyed 800 homes in five days, according to official reports released this Sunday.
Favored by moderate and strong winds and temperatures above 40ºC, the fire has devastated some 270,000 hectares in a region located some 500 km south of Santiago.
The number of deaths “has risen to 24, because a person died in Angol, who was hospitalized and who unfortunately died,” said the Undersecretary of the Interior, Manuel Monsalve, on Sunday. In addition, there are 997 injured, 26 of them in serious condition.
In the agricultural area surrounded by timber forests devastated by fire, scenes of plots reduced to ashes, dead animals and country people who suddenly lost everything are repeated.
“I came home from work and I was already without anything, without a home. I was left on the street, arms crossed, now with my son, my wife, in a tent. I have no fodder for my little animals,” declared a resident of the town of Purén , in the Araucanía region, to Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN).
A woman from the El Santo sector, in the municipality of Tomé, BíoBío region, explained how the fire devoured 15 houses: “Most of the houses here burned. People did not take anything, they left with what they were wearing, because the fire moved very quickly.
President Gabriel Boric attended the wake of a firefighter in the town of Coronel.
“All of Chile cries with you. I am here to tell you that you are not alone, that Yesenia’s family (Muñoz, the deceased firefighter) will not be alone,” said the president.
A breath
On this Sunday morning, a drop in temperatures seemed to give a breather to the 5,300 brigade members and firefighters fighting the fires.
According to the National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (Senapred), the fires that are in combat went from 87 to 51.
“We are experiencing a small window of improvement in weather conditions during Sunday and Monday. This means that we are not experiencing extreme high temperatures,” Monsalve said, but warned that thermometers could return to close to 40ºC on Tuesday.
The official assured that there are 10 people detained for their responsibility in the start of some of the fires.
The red alert remains in three of the regions affected by the 260 fires still active.
International aid
“We face the emergency with unity,” said President Boric on his Twitter account.
The president traveled again on Sunday to the city of Concepción, 510 km south of Santiago, and visited affected areas.
International aid began to take shape with the departure on Sunday from Spain of a plane and a contingent of 50 people including specialists, soldiers and drone pilots.
“We have just sent a plane to Chile with a contingent of the Military Emergency Unit to collaborate in the extinction and control of the fires that are plaguing the country. All our support for the Chilean people,” tweeted the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez .
The Chilean Foreign Ministry maintained that coordination is also being carried out with Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, the United States and Mexico.
At the beginning of 2017, a chain of fires that devastated some 460,000 hectares left 11 dead, nearly 6,000 injured and more than 1,500 houses burned.
The outbreaks had also started then in agricultural areas and forests, and advanced to populated areas.
