Chile forest fires: dozens dead, hundreds missing in nation’s worst disaster since 2010 earthquake
- Deadly fires burned with the highest intensity around the coastal city of Vina del Mar
- President announces two days of national mourning, warns toll could rise significantly
Firefighters in central Chile battled to quell fierce forest fires that have killed 112 people so far and razed entire neighbourhoods, while President Gabriel Boric warned the country faces a “tragedy of very great magnitude”.
Hundreds of people are still missing, authorities say, stoking fears the death toll will keep climbing as more bodies are found on hillsides and houses devastated by the wildfires.
The fires that gathered momentum on Friday now menaced the outer edges of Vina del Mar and Valparaiso, two coastal cities popular with tourists. The urban sprawl of those cities accounts for more than a million residents west of the capital Santiago.
Drone footage filmed by Reuters in Vina del Mar area showed whole neighbourhoods scorched, with residents rummaging through husks of burnt-out houses where corrugated iron roofs have collapsed. On the streets, singed cars littered the roads.
“The wind was terrible, the heat scorching. There was no respite. People dispersed everywhere,” said Pedro Quezada, a local builder in the Valparaiso region, standing amid charred debris of his destroyed home.