13 Killed As Wildfires Rip Through South-Central Chile, Rescue Ops Underway

Chile’s govt has declared a widened state of emergency amid wildfires that have claimed at least 13 lives and torched around 14,000 hectares of land, as the country faces a summer heatwave.

View of a fire in Santa Juana, Concepcion province, Chile on February 3, 2023. Chile has declared a state of disaster in several central-southern regions after a devastating heat wave provoked forest fires that left four people dead, authorities said on Friday. ( Image Source :AFP )

New Delhi: At least 13 people were killed on Friday, authorities said and 14,000 hectares of land were torched as dozens of wildfires raged in Chile amid the summer heatwave in the country, reported CBC News.

Chile’s government has declared a widened state of emergency amid wildfires as the South American nation faces a summer heatwave across southern and central swaths of the country, The Guardian reported. Eleven people, including a firefighter, had died in the town of Santa Juana in Biobio, local authorities said, as reported by Reuters.

The interior minister, Carolina Toha, said on Friday morning the government has joined the neighbouring region Ñuble, which President Gabriel Boric announced on Thursday evening and declared a catastrophe in the region of Biobío, allowing the deployment of soldiers and additional resources, The Guardian reported.

As reported by Reuters, hundreds of homes have been damaged while 39 fires rage across the country, Interior Minister Carolina Toha said. According to the Chilean disaster agency Senapred, some families sought refuge in shelters. Fires disrupted traffic on highways, and numerous settlements have been evacuated.

Cutting his vacation short, President Gabriel Boric on Friday travelled to Nuble and Biobio. "My role as president today is to ensure that all resources will be available for the emergency and so that people feel that they are not going to be alone," Boric said from Biobio, as quoted by Reuters.

He also pointed to "signs" that some fires may have been started intentionally. According to weather forecasts on Friday, temperatures are expected to be over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Nuble's capital, Chillan, with strong winds that risked worsening fire conditions, Reuters reported.

Partly due to climate change, wildfires have grown in intensity as rising temperatures and drought heighten fire conditions around the world, resulting in explosive blazes in places like Chile, Algeria, France, Spain, and the western United States. In late December, a forest fire near the coastal resort town of Vinas Del Mar in Chile killed at least one person and destroyed more than 100 homes.