Entire residential areas devastated, charred cars, nearly 26,000 hectares reduced to ashes… The violent fires ravaging the tourist coastal region of Valparaíso in central Chile have left at least 112 dead, a toll that risks increasing. weigh down this Monday. There are 1,400 firefighters, accompanied by 1,300 soldiers and volunteers, who continue, for the fourth consecutive day, to fight around forty active outbreaks, located in the center and south of the country, according to the National Disaster Prevention and Response Service. (Senapred).
Hit by extreme heat waves, Chile is facing the deadliest forest fires in recent history. “We must say, with the information received from the forensic service that there are 112 people killed, 32 bodies identified,” Manuel Monsalve, spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior, declared Sunday evening during a press conference. The previous toll given by the Forensic Medicine Service (SML) was 99 dead.
What explains such rapid spread?
Chile is in the middle of the southern summer and has been experiencing a heat wave since last week, with temperatures reaching 40°C.
On Friday, several fires broke out simultaneously in the mountains overlooking the resort town of Viña del Mar and other places in the Valparaíso region, about 120 km north of the capital Santiago.
According to Professor Miguel Castillo, from the Faculty of Forestry Sciences at the University of Chile, wind and high temperatures form a “harmful” combination. When burning, vegetation or waste generates light, hot air, “which raises flaming particles or sparks which travel hundreds of meters, causing satellite fires,” he explains. . The flames accelerate “on the slopes and with the help of the wind”, which makes them more and more dangerous.
A very high number of victims
At least 112 people have been killed in the fires, according to the latest report. The fire reached densely populated areas, mainly in Viña del Mar. In one place, Villa Independencia, 19 people died.
In this sector and others, families lived crowded together in light constructions, sometimes on land intended to serve as a firebreak, according to authorities and experts. The lightweight materials used for these constructions, such as wood, are unfortunately an excellent fuel, able to take over from fiber cement, a material with fire-retardant properties. Flames rushed through the narrow streets of the hills, blowing up entire rows of cars parked in front of houses, survivors said.
It now remains to be determined whether, despite evacuation orders sent to mobile phones on time, some people refused to leave. “The alarms were triggered, but the evacuation apparently did not work (…). The emphasis is on combat, but not on prevention (…) and I think that is a gap,” said Horacio Gilabert, from the Center for Global Change at the Catholic University of Chile.
State of emergency declared
President Boric, who, in almost two years in power, increased the budget devoted to fire prevention and fighting by 47%, declared a state of emergency in order to mobilize as many resources as possible. In certain areas of Valparaíso, a curfew has been established in order to free the roads, to allow the rapid passage of emergency vehicles or to facilitate evacuations. Some 1,400 firefighters and 1,300 soldiers and volunteers, supported by 31 helicopters and water-throwing planes, are mobilized to fight the flames.
But Chile still needs to review and modernize its strategy to deal with disasters of this magnitude, experts say. Thus, the country does not have nighttime fire-fighting resources. “Therefore, the probability that all the work done during the day will be lost during the night is very high,” emergency management expert Michel De L’Herbe told Cooperativa radio.
Are these fires due to climate change?
The southern cone of America is currently suffocating under scorching temperatures. In this region, the natural and cyclical phenomenon “El Niño” has become more intense and more frequent due to global warming caused by human activity, according to scientists. This phenomenon increases the temperature of the Pacific Ocean, causing droughts or floods. “A change of just a few degrees in the tropical Pacific can mean the difference between a relatively calm wildfire season and a widespread disaster,” says climatologist Raúl Cordero in a study recently published in the journal Nature’s Scientific Reports.
Last year, Chile experienced an atypical period of rain amid a prolonged drought. This led to the appearance of scrubland, a perfect fuel for a wildfire.
But the Chilean authorities are not ruling out the criminal possibility, as President Gabriel Boric declared on Saturday. “The possibility that these fires were intentional is under investigation.” According to Chile’s National Forestry Council (Conaf), 99.7% of fires are caused either deliberately or recklessly. In the present case, “outbreaks occurred simultaneously, which is completely abnormal,” notes Professor Castillo.