Rescue efforts are underway on Saturday, February 3, in Chile where a state of emergency was declared the day before in order to fight against violent forest fires which are spreading in tourist regions of the Latin American country, raising fears of a provisional toll of around ten deaths.

The fires have plunged the popular seaside resort of Vina del Mar, along the Pacific coast in the Valparaiso region, into a cloud of smoke and are threatening hundreds of homes, prompting forced evacuations.

“We have preliminary information indicating several people have died, around ten,” announced Sofía Gonzáles Cortés, the state representative in the Valparaiso region.

The Chilean President, Gabriel Boric, declared a state of exception in order to "have all the necessary means" in the face of the progression of the fires. “All forces are deployed in the fight against forest fires,” assured the Head of State in a message posted on the social network the situation.

In the Valparaiso region alone, the fire devoured more than 7,000 hectares, according to CONAF, the Chilean national forestry office, pointing out the "extreme evolution" of the fire.

Residents evacuated due to forest fires in Vina del Mar, in the Valparaiso region of Chile, February 2, 2024. © Javier TORRES / AFP

Images that have gone viral on social networks, shot by trapped motorists, show the mountains engulfed in flames at the end of the famous "route 68", a road used by thousands of tourists to get to the beaches of Peaceful.

Never seen"

“I had never seen something like this, it’s very distressing because we evacuated the house but we can’t move forward, all these people trying to get out and who can’t move,” confides Yvonne Guzmán, attached to the telephone by AFP.

This 63-year-old administrator, who abandoned her house in Quilpué, a town located 90 kilometers northeast of Santiago, has been patient for two hours, “stranded” in her car with her nonagenarian mother-in-law.

A cloud of smoke caused by forest fires in Vina del Mar in the Valparaiso region of Chile on February 2, 2024 © Javier TORRES / AFP

“We received an alert on the cell phone and a rain of burning ashes started to fall,” she says, while messages from her neighbors warn her that the flames are approaching her house.

In the towns of Estrella and Navidad, 200 kilometers southwest of the capital, uncontrolled fires burned nearly thirty homes, forcing residents to flee to this area near the seaside resort of Pichilemu , famous for surfing.

Since Wednesday, the temperature has been close to 40°C in central Chile and the capital Santiago.

Authorities halted traffic on Friday due to "reduced visibility due to smoke" on Route 68 which connects Santiago to Valparaiso and leads to the wine region of Casablanca and the seaside resort of Vina del Mar.

Firefighters fight forest fires in Vina del Mar, in the Valparaiso region of Chile, February 2, 2024. © Javier TORRES / AFP

“These episodes are more and more recurrent, which is why we see historic temperature records every year,” Pablo Lobos Stephani, responsible for fire protection at the Chilean channel, explained to the Chilean channel CNN. Conaf.

This heatwave resulting from the El Niño climatic phenomenon is currently affecting the southern cone of Latin America, in the middle of summer, causing forest fires worsened by global warming. After Chile and Colombia, the heat wave threatens Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil in the coming days.

With AFP

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