Chile wildfire death toll jumps to 99, state morgue confirms
- President Gabriel Boric said the death toll would continue to rise, adding that it was country’s deadliest disaster since 2010’s earthquake and tsunami
- Authorities warned of ‘complicated’ conditions as they battled fires in the coastal region of Valparaiso. The disaster left bodies in the streets
The confirmed death toll from wildfires raging in central Chile has climbed to 99, the national organisation in charge of managing victims’ bodies said on Sunday.
The Legal Medical Service (SML) “has taken in a total of 99 people; 32 of them identified,” the organisation said, updating a toll of 64 dead given earlier in the day by President Gabriel Boric.
Authorities warned of “complicated” conditions as they battled fires in the coastal tourist region of Valparaiso amid an intense summer heatwave, with temperatures soaring to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) over the weekend.
Rosana Avendano, a 63-year-old kitchen assistant, was away from home when the fire began to sweep through the city of Vina del Mar, where she lives with her husband.
“It was terrible because I couldn’t get [to my house]. The fire came here … we lost everything,” Avendano told Agence France-Presse.
“My husband was lying down and began to feel the heat of the fire coming and he ran away.”
She feared the worst for hours, but eventually was able to contact her spouse.