Forest fires tearing through central Chile have killed at least 112 people, Interior Undersecretary Manuel Monsalve said Sunday, after the president warned the death toll would rise as high temperatures and widespread droughts fan blazes across South America.
Authorities counted 164 fires nationwide, Monsalve said, at least 40 of those still active.
“I have decided to decree two days of national mourning starting this Monday,” President Gabriel Boric said on social media. “It is all of Chile that suffers and mourns its dead.”
The deaths were recorded in the Valparaíso region northwest of the capital, Santiago, where the fires started in hard-to-reach mountain areas and then spread to the outskirts of several densely populated cities and resort towns.
Authorities estimate that at least 15,000 homes were destroyed in the affected region. In Viña del Mar, a popular vacation spot, Mayor Macarena Ripamonti said more than 190 people were missing, calling it an “unprecedented tragedy.”
Boric declared a state of emergency and asked for more military personnel to immediately deploy to the affected areas, home to more than 1 million people. A curfew was announced in cities threatened by the flames, to make way for fire engines and ambulances, and to prevent looting, officials said.
Chile’s President Gabriel Boric declared a state of emergency on Feb. 3, as forest fires swept central Chile’s Valparaíso region amid a heat wave. (Video: Naomi Schanen/The Washington Post)
Authorities are investigating the possibility that the fires were deliberately lit.
“While it is difficult to imagine who would be willing to cause so much tragedy and so much pain, know that we will investigate,” Boric said Saturday.
On Sunday, Valparaíso regional governor Rodrigo Mundaca reinforced that theory.
“These fires began in four points that lit up simultaneously,” Mundaca said, according to Associated Press reporting. “As authorities, we will have to work rigorously to find who is responsible.”
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Wildfires are relatively common in Chile during the Southern Hemisphere’s summer months. The peak fire season typically begins in early December and lasts several months.
This year, a change to the El Niño weather pattern — which causes rising sea temperatures near South America — has led to soaring temperatures and heat waves across the region, including in the Chilean capital, Santiago.
Colombia’s government last month asked for international help to combat raging wildfires spanning nearly 40,000 hectares.
