More than 60 dead in forest fires in Chile This is the situation after the major earthquake in Turkey a year ago

The death toll from Chile’s fierce wildfires has risen to at least 64. “We know this number will increase significantly,” President Gabriel Boric said on Sunday during a visit to the disaster area in the Valparaíso region on the Pacific coast. More than 300 people were still missing.

“This is the worst tragedy our country has experienced since the 2010 earthquake,” the head of state said. At that time, more than 520 people were killed. President Boric announced two days of national mourning from Monday in honor of those who died.

The forestry authority registered 161 fires spread across the country on Sunday, covering a total area of ​​more than 28,000 hectares. Thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed, more than 3,000 in the Valparaíso region alone, Interior Minister Carolina Tohá said. The region west of the capital Santiago, where the government says about 1.8 million people live, is hardest hit by the fires. A fire near the coastal towns of Valparaíso and Viña del Mar has spread to an area of ​​about 11,000 hectares, it is said.

On Friday, President Boric had already declared a state of emergency in the affected areas due to the disaster in order to mobilize all necessary resources. He has now ordered the Ministry of Defense to deploy more military units. Curfews were imposed on some communities to facilitate firefighting and rescue work.

An investigation is underway into whether the fires may have been deliberately set, President Boric said. He announced an investigation, “although it is difficult to imagine who caused such a tragedy and so much pain.” According to the Minister of the Interior, the government had “serious information” about the Valparaí fire, indicating that it was deliberately set. Further south, in the Maule region, a person was arrested for causing a fire while working with a welding machine.

Serious forest fires occur again and again in Chile in the southern hemisphere in the summer. Last year, more than 425,000 hectares of land burned in central and southern Chile – about eight times the area of ​​Lake Constance. At least 26 people were killed. (sda/dpa)