A wave of 151 wildfires hits Chilean territory, concentrated in the country’s mid-south, as temperatures top 40 degrees in some cities. The blazes have left at least five dead and a hundred homes damaged in the Ñuble and Biobío regions, 400 and 500 kilometers south of Santiago respectively. President Gabriel Boric interrupted his vacation in Patagonia this Friday and traveled to the city of Concepción in Ñubla to meet with local authorities and visit affected residents. The President has declared a constitutional state of emergency in the two critical regions.
Interior Minister Carolina Tohá has reported that of the 151 active fires nationwide, 39 are fighting, 65 are being controlled and the rest are “en route or under surveillance”. There are 15 fires in the Ñuble region that have devastated almost 14,000 hectares. The minister explained that the four people who died in the municipality of Santa Juana (approx. 13,000 inhabitants) in Concepción were people who were traveling in cars on different roads. “In one case they burned because they were hit by the fire,” Tohá said, and in the other they suffered an accident, “probably trying to escape the fire.”
Firefighters work to put out the fire in Quillón, Chile.JUAN GONZALEZ (Portal)
According to the government authorities’ assessment, the fire department announced that volunteer Yessenia Muñoz from the 3rd Yobilo Fire Company died after helping to fight the blaze also in Santa Juana, which is on evacuation and alert. “We have locked people in their homes asking for help. It’s a big disaster,” Mayor Ana Albornóz warned the media. “The fire is not under control and the climatic situation has not yet reached its critical point,” added the local authority, which reiterated the call for the military to be deployed to the area.
The state of emergency decreed by the President allows the deployment of military forces in the area. “It allows us to place special extra supports due to the current fire situation,” said Tohá. Authorities can also restrict freedom of movement and assembly and take any extraordinary administrative measures necessary to restore normality in the affected area. Boric instructed Agriculture Minister Esteban Valenzuela, Defense Minister Maya Fernández and Undersecretary of Interior Manuel Monsalve to go to the epicenter of the emergency “to expedite concrete and on-the-spot action for the affected families.” .
Chile accumulates 14 years of drought, the longest drought on record. Six regions in the center of the South American country, where almost 80% of the population is concentrated, are facing an unprecedented water crisis.
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