{"id":18241,"date":"2024-02-03T17:20:24","date_gmt":"2024-02-03T22:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/wildfires-threaten-2-chilean-cities-destroying-1000-homes-and-killing-19\/03\/02\/2024\/"},"modified":"2024-02-03T17:20:24","modified_gmt":"2024-02-03T22:20:24","slug":"wildfires-threaten-2-chilean-cities-destroying-1000-homes-and-killing-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/wildfires-threaten-2-chilean-cities-destroying-1000-homes-and-killing-19\/03\/02\/2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildfires Threaten 2 Chilean Cities, Destroying 1,000 Homes and Killing 19"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Forest fires ripping through central Chile\u2019s coastal hills since Friday have killed at least 19 people and destroyed more than 1,000 homes, with many more feared dead, according to the national government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The wildfires are encroaching on Vi\u00f1a del Mar and Valpara\u00edso, two cities that form a sprawling region that is home to more than one million people on Chile\u2019s central coastline, about 75 miles northeast of the capital, Santiago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Just after midday, President Gabriel Boric flew over the area in a helicopter, and said his government had worked to \u201csecure the greatest resources\u201d in Chile\u2019s history to fight the blazes during the country\u2019s wildfire season, which typically hits during the Southern Hemisphere\u2019s summer and reaches a peak in February.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI assure you all that we will be there as a government to help you recover,\u201d he wrote on the social media platform X.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Friday night, President Boric issued a constitutional decree granting his government additional powers to combat the fires.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Chilean wildfires come as Colombia has also been <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/01\/29\/world\/americas\/colombia-wildfire-forest.html\" title=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">battling blazes in the mountains around Bogot\u00e1<\/a>, the capital, as dozens of other blazes have burned across the country, in what officials say is the hottest January there in three decades. Climatologists have linked the extreme dryness there and wildfires to warming trends afflicting South America.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Various Chilean agencies, as well as the country\u2019s air force, have deployed 92 planes to fly over the fires dropping water. The government has also issued a steady trickle of evacuation notices, mixed with pleas for calm.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Makeshift refuges and support centers have sprung up in several towns, with local authorities calling for donations of drinking water, mattresses, blankets and food.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The interior ministry imposed a 9 p.m. Saturday curfew in Vi\u00f1a del Mar as well as in several nearby towns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Saturday morning, Chile\u2019s interior minister, Carolina Toh\u00e1, announced that 15 of the 19 victims had been identified so far, among them a 17-year-old girl.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Toh\u00e1 warned that the death toll was likely to rise once authorities gained access to the affected areas. She added that 92 fires were still burning nationwide \u2014 29 of which are still being fought and 40 of which have been brought are under control \u2014 with more than 160 square miles of land already having been ravaged by the fires.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The mayor of Vi\u00f1a del Mar, Macarena Ripamonti, said that in addition to the confirmed fatalities, 249 more people had been reported missing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Eight areas of the city have been evacuated, including patients from a hospital clinic whom police and firefighters have moved to other facilities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">This January was the second hottest on record in Santiago; the hottest was in 2017, a year also affected by the El Ni\u00f1o weather phenomenon, which typically brings high temperatures and heavy rainfall to the Pacific Coast of South America.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While wildfires afflict central and southern Chile each summer, the regional director of Chile\u2019s national forestry commission for Valpara\u00edso, Leonardo Moder, said that one of the fires appeared to have been started deliberately and was racing toward Vi\u00f1a del Mar.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Valpara\u00edso\u2019s City Council has begun a criminal investigation, officials said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/02\/03\/world\/americas\/wildfires-chile-valparaiso.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Forest fires ripping through central Chile&rsquo;s coastal hills since Friday have killed at least 19 people and destroyed more than 1,000 homes,<br \/><button class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/wildfires-threaten-2-chilean-cities-destroying-1000-homes-and-killing-19\/03\/02\/2024\/\">Read More &rsaquo;<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18241"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}