Chile Wildfires Spread Amid Heat Wave as Death Toll Rises

February 04, 2023 
Associated Press

A woman clears debris from a landscape of charred remains in Santa Ana, Chile, Feb. 4, 2023.

SANTIAGO, CHILE —

Chile extended an emergency declaration to yet another region on Saturday as firefighters struggled to control dozens of raging wildfires that have claimed at least 22 lives amid a scorching heat wave that has broken records.

The government declared a state of catastrophe in the La Araucanía region, which is south of Ñuble and Biobío, two central-southern regions where the emergency declaration had already been issued. The measure allows for greater cooperation with the military.

At least 22 people have died in connection to the fires and 554 have been injured, including 16 in serious condition, according to Interior Minister Carolina Tohá. The death toll is likely to rise as Tohá said there are unconfirmed reports of at least 10 people missing.

Sixteen of the deaths took place in Biobío, five in La Araucanía and one in Ñuble.

The deaths included a Bolivian pilot who died when a helicopter that was helping combat the flames crashed in La Araucanía. A Chilean mechanic also died in the crash.

Over the past week, fires have burned through an area equivalent to what is usually burned in an entire year, Tohá said in a news conference.

The fires come at a time of record high temperatures.

"The thermometer has reached points that we have never known until now," Tohá said.

As of Saturday morning, there were 251 wildfires raging throughout Chile, 151 of which were under control, according to Chile's Senapred disaster agency.

"Seventy-six new fires appeared yesterday," Tohá said Saturday.

The minister also suggested the fires should serve as yet another wake-up call about the effects of climate change.

"The evolution of climate change shows us again and again that this has a centrality and a capacity to cause an impact that we have to internalize much more," Tohá said. "Chile is one of the countries with the highest vulnerability to climate change, and this isn't theory but rather practical experience."

Chile is requesting international cooperation to assist the firefighting efforts.

"We're requesting support from several countries to address the emergency," President Gabriel Boric wrote on social media.

Wildfires across Chile claim at least 13 lives

Heatwave poses challenges in controlling more than 150 fires burning in the country

People visit the beach as a forest fire burns
Associated Press

Feb 04, 2023

At least 13 people were reported dead as a result of the more than 150 wildfires burning across Chile, which have destroyed homes and thousands of hectares of forest.

The South American country is in the midst of a scorching heatwave that is set to continue with high temperatures and strong winds that could make the wildfires more challenging.

Four of the deaths involved two vehicles in the Biobio region, about 560 kilometres south of the capital of Santiago.

“In one case they were burnt because they were hit by the fire,” Interior Minister Carolina Toha said. In the other case, she said, the victims died in a crash, “probably trying to escape the fire”.

A fifth fatality in the area was a fireman who was run over by a fire engine.

On Friday afternoon, a helicopter that was helping to fight the fires crashed in the Araucania region, killing the Bolivian pilot and a Chilean mechanic.

The national agency responsible for emergencies raised the death toll to 13 on Friday night, without giving details on the latest deaths.

As of midday on Friday, 151 wildfires were burning throughout Chile, including 65 declared under control. The fires had blazed through more than 14,000 hectares.

Most of the wildfires are in Biobio and neighbouring Nuble, where the government has declared states of catastrophe that allows greater co-ordination with the military and the suspension of certain constitutional rights.

President Gabriel Boric, who cut short his holiday to visit the affected areas on Friday, said there was evidence that some of the wildfires were sparked by unauthorised burnings.

“The full force of the state will be deployed to, first of all, fight the fires and to accompany all the victims,” Mr Boric said.

It remained unclear how many homes and other structures had been burnt.

“Families are having a very difficult time,” Ivonne Rivas, the mayor of Tome in Biobio, told local radio. “It’s hell what they are living through, the fire got away from us.”

The wildfires caused the suspension of a highly anticipated announcement by forensic experts who were expected to give the cause of death of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, winner of a Nobel Prize for literature.

The experts were set to give their view on whether Neruda died of complications from prostate cancer or whether he was poisoned, potentially settling one of the great mysteries of post-coup Chile.

The doctor in charge of delivering the report’s findings was unable to connect to the internet because he is in a region affected by the wildfires, a spokesman for the country’s judiciary said.