By AP
A total of 46 people have died so far in the fires that have devastated the Chilean region of Valparaíso since Friday in the towns of Viña del Mar, Limache, Quilpué and Villa Alemana, where massive evacuations took place on Friday due to the voracious advance of the flames, as confirmed by the president, Gabriel Boric.
The death toll was provisional and could increase during the day.
The Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, reported that there were almost 8,000 hectares affected in total in the area.
The images on Saturday morning, after the fire passed, showed mountains of rubble in more than 1,100 affected homes, according to a preliminary assessment by the authorities in the early morning, as well as rows of completely burned cars, rubble, swarms of wires and of burned material and hundreds of people who in many cases were left with what they were wearing, and lost all their belongings.
Many of them also mourned the loss of their pets.
After noon, some outbreaks in the area were reactivated again and the authorities sent messages to request the immediate evacuation of various areas in Viña del Mar.
A person walks among the houses and cars destroyed after the fires that have left thousands of homes destroyed in the mountains of Viña del Mar, in Chile, this February 3, 2024. Anadolu / Anadolu via Getty Images
Boric had declared a state of emergency due to a catastrophe on Friday, which allows resources to be mobilized more quickly, and the authorities decreed in the four most affected areas - Viña del Mar, Limache, Quilpué and Villa Alemana - a curfew until noon for to be able to prioritize the evacuation and to ensure that traffic congestion did not occur on the main roads as occurred the previous night.
“Thirty-two years here and we never imagined this would happen.
We were seeing that the fire was on the other side and in 10-15 minutes it was here and embers began to fall from all sides
," says Rolando Fernández, in one of the affected areas in the El Olivar sector in Viña del Mar. Everything darkened, they couldn't stand the heat and the only thing they could do was flee.
At least three of his neighbors were burned in the fire, and about a dozen people he knows have died, he added.
“I have fought a lifetime to be left with nothing,” he said, pointing out that only the walls of his houses were left standing and that he also lost all his animals.
[“We have nothing,” lament those displaced by the fire of a building in New York]
President Boric flew over the affected area at local noon to evaluate the extent of the flames.
Firefighters fight the flames in the Quilpe commune, Valparaíso region, this February 3, 2024.JAVIER TORRES / AFP via Getty Images
The various fires, which emerged simultaneously in four outbreaks in the Peñuelas Lake area on Friday, expanded rapidly at night and attacked several flanks of the Valparaíso region.
The simultaneity made the authorities think that it was an arson attack, and they investigated this possibility.
Many of the fires burned on hills and areas with difficult access and affected areas of irregular housing.
The Valparaíso region is one of the regions with the largest number of these homes in the entire country, although many solidly built homes also burned, due to a fire described as voracious by both the authorities and the victims, still impressed by the speed with which where the events occurred.
In addition, communications and electrical outages were reported: a total of 137 antennas had been affected by the fire.
Various people used local television to look for their relatives whom they could not yet locate.
[A powerful fire causes the closure of a major highway in Los Angeles]
High temperatures will continue
The Valparaíso metro was not working, and several bridges were affected.
Two small bus terminals caught fire, both the facilities and the buses inside.
Four medical centers and three nursing homes were also affected by the flames and had to be evacuated throughout the region.
The minister pointed out that for Saturday the same weather conditions as Friday are expected, with high temperatures and wind gusts of 40 kilometers per hour that in the ravines can reach up to 60 kilometers, “which is worrying” for the extinction of the fires.
In recent days, Chile has experienced a heat wave that has broken records for this time of year.
On the other hand, more than 2,300 hectares were consumed in recent days in the neighboring region of O'Higgins, where the fires have been spreading for several days in the Christmas and Estrella areas.
In addition, there are also fires in the Maule region.
According to Minister Tohá, to date 43,000 hectares have burned in Chile, according to preliminary figures for the fire season to date.
On Friday, 31,000 hectares were reported affected throughout the country.