The death toll from blazing wildfires in central Chile rose to at least 99 people on Sunday after President Gabriel Boric warned the toll would rise “significantly” as teams scour ravaged neighborhoods.
Emergency workers continued to battle fires in the coastal tourist region of Valparaiso amid an intense summer heat wave that saw temperatures soar 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 spread through Vina del Mar, the coastal city 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 AFP.
“My husband was lying in bed and felt the heat of the fire coming and he ran away.”
She feared the worst for hours, but was eventually able to contact him.
“Not a single house is left here,” 67-year-old retiree Lilian Rojas told AFP of her neighborhood near the Vina del Mar botanical garden, which was also destroyed by the flames.
The organization responsible for managing the victims' bodies said on Sunday afternoon that it had “taken in 99 people, of which 32 have been identified”.
Earlier in Quilpue, a devastated hillside community near Vina del Mar, Boric spoke of 64 people, but said that number was certain to “rise.”
“We know the disaster will increase significantly,” he added, saying it was the country's deadliest disaster since a 2010 earthquake and tsunami that killed 500 people.
Dead victims on the street
Boric declared a state of emergency and pledged government aid to help people get back on their feet after flying over the affected area in a helicopter on Saturday afternoon.
Nearly 26,000 hectares (64,000 acres) had burned in the central and southern regions by Sunday, according to national disaster agency SENAPRED.
Supported by 31 fire-fighting helicopters and aircraft, around 1,400 firefighters, 1,300 soldiers and volunteers are fighting the flames.
SENAPRED chief Alvaro Hormazabal said firefighters battled 34 fires on Sunday morning, while 43 others were under control.
Weather “Conditions will remain complicated,” Hormazabal said.
Authorities imposed a curfew starting at 9pm on Saturday (0000 GMT on Sunday), while thousands in affected areas were ordered to evacuate their homes.
In the hills around Vina del Mar, AFP reporters saw entire blocks of houses burning from Friday to Saturday.
Some of the dead were seen lying on the road, covered with sheets.
'Inferno'
The fires, which raged for days, forced authorities on Friday to close the road connecting the Valparaiso region with the capital Santiago, about an hour and a half away, as a huge mushroom cloud of smoke obscured visibility.
Images of trapped motorists posted online showed mountains in flames at the end of the famous 'Route 68' leading to the Pacific coast.
Interior Minister Carolina Toha said the weekend fires were “without a doubt” the deadliest fire in Chile's history.
“This was an inferno,” Rodrigo Pulgar, from the town of El Olivar, told AFP. “I was trying to help my neighbor… my house started burning behind us. It was raining ash.”
During his Sunday address, Pope Francis, from neighboring Argentina, called for prayers for the “dead and injured in the devastating fires in Chile.”
The fires are caused by a summer heat wave and drought affecting southern South America, caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon, as scientists warn that a warming planet has increased the risk of natural disasters such as intense heat and fires.
Rising temperatures threaten to engulf more of the continent as brigades in Argentina have been battling a fire since January 25 that has destroyed more than 3,000 hectares in the Los Alerces National Park, famous for its beauty and biodiversity.
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