Forest fires have killed 24 people, injured nearly 1,000 and destroyed 800 homes in five days due to a devastating heat wave in south-central Chile, authorities said Sunday.
Fueled by strong winds and temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), hundreds of fires have burned about 270,000 hectares in an area about 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of the capital Santiago.
The death toll rose by one since Saturday with the death of a person being treated for injuries in hospital, interior ministry official Manuel Monsalve said.
The fatalities included one firefighter as well as two crew members of the helicopter that crashed on Friday.
Monsalve also reported 997 people suffering from fire injuries, 26 people in serious condition.
Eight firefighters were among the injured.
There were scenes of devastation Sunday in an area surrounded by burning forests, with agricultural plots reduced to ashes, animals dead and villagers missing overnight.
“It’s hell,” Maria Ines, a 55-year-old social worker in Santa Juana in the hard-hit Biobio region told AFP after many homes were razed by fire.
“It is a miracle that some houses were not saved,” he said, but “now we are afraid that the fire will return … Where will we find shelter? Where? How?”
Miguel Angel Henriquez, a 58-year-old farmer from Santa Juana in the same area, told AFP that he saw a neighbor who dared to light a fire to try to save some of his animals. “He didn’t come out. I yelled for him to get out of the fire, but he didn’t listen.
A woman from El Santo, in the municipality of Tome, explained that “most of the houses” in her settlement were burned.
“People couldn’t save anything, they left with what they were wearing, because the fire was so fast.”
President Gabriel Boric attended the wake of the firefighters in the city of Coronel, telling mourners: “The whole of Chile is crying with you. I’m here to tell you that you are not alone.”
‘small window’
On Sunday morning, the drop in temperature promised some respite for the 5,300 firefighters assigned to fight the blaze.
“There is a window of climate improvement on Sunday and Monday,” Monsalve told reporters, but warned temperatures could approach 40 C on Tuesday.
Ten people have been arrested, the official added, on suspicion of arson.
With around 260 active fires, the government maintains a state of emergency in the regions of Nuble, Biobio and La Araucania, allowing the deployment of additional resources, restrictions on the free movement of people and the use of soldiers in arrest operations.
“We face the emergency in unity,” Boric said on Twitter.
The plane left Spain on Sunday with 50 firefighting specialists, soldiers and drone pilots on board.
“We have sent a plane to Chile with a contingent of Emergency Military Units to help put out and control the fire that is attacking the country. All support to the Chilean people,” tweeted Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
Other countries including Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Mexico have also provided assistance, according to the Chilean government.
On Saturday, Interior Minister Carolina Toha said that Chile is one of the countries most vulnerable to fires due to climate change.
Fire conditions that seemed extreme just three years ago are becoming more common, he said.
In 2017, numerous fires in the same area killed 11 people, injured nearly 6,000 and destroyed 1,500 homes.