'Like being in hell': Chile mourns as wildfire death toll hits 112

[February 05, 2024]  By Alexander Villegas and Jorge Vega

VINA DEL MAR, Chile (Reuters) - Chile began an official two-day mourning period on Monday for the 112 so far killed in the South American country's deadliest wildfires in recent history, while authorities continued to battle blazes fanned by high temperatures and strong winds.

Fires that broke out in central Chile late last week gathered momentum throughout the weekend, ravaging the coastal cities of Vina del Mar and Valparaiso. Hundreds of people remain missing and some 14,000 homes have been damaged.

Drone footage filmed by Reuters in the Vina del Mar area showed whole neighborhoods scorched, with residents rummaging through husks of burnt-out houses where corrugated iron roofs have collapsed. On the streets, singed cars littered the roads.

"From one moment to the next, the fire reached the botanical park. In ten minutes the fire was already on us," Vina del Mar resident Jesica Barrios, who lost her home in the fires, told Reuters over the weekend.

"There was smoke, the sky turned black, everything was dark. The wind felt like a hurricane. It was like being in hell."

On Sunday night, Deputy Interior Minister Manuel Monsalve said there were still 165 active fires, up from 154 on Saturday. A curfew has been imposed in the hardest-hit regions and the military has been sent in to help firefighters stop the spread.

Monsalve said slightly lower temperatures and cloud cover could help authorities put out the fires in coming days.

LOWER TEMPERATURES FORECAST

"We're going to keep having high temperatures, but not extreme ones," Monsalve said at a press conference.

An areal view shows the burnt remains of houses following the spread of wildfires, in Vina del Mar, Chile February 4, 2024. REUTERS/Sofia Yanjari/File Photo

Chile's investigative police force (PDI) has said it was investigating areas where fires might have been started intentionally and local media reported on Monday that two suspects had been detained on suspicion of starting fires.

Chile, Argentina and other areas in South America's southern cone have been facing a severe heat wave, something experts say will become more common during the southern hemisphere summer months due to climate change.

Extreme weather in Chile has also been exacerbated by the El Nino weather phenomenon, which warms the Pacific Ocean.

Maria Soledad Suarez said she and her husband had long planned for disaster, though they had thought it would likely be an earthquake striking the Andean nation, not fires.

"He always thought there would be a disaster, an earthquake or something like that, and we would have been left with nothing to eat," she told Reuters.

"So we had three fridges where we would have fruit, in the other chicken and red meat, and in the other vegetables. It was all lost. It was all burnt. The fridges are all gone."

(Reporting by Alexander Villegas and Jorge Vega; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Sharon Singleton)

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