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Hundreds of people strolled through the lush greenery of the National Botanical Garden in Viña del Mar, Chile’s fourth largest city, on Friday afternoon. They could not have imagined that the beautiful nature would turn into a flaming fire in a very short time.

Suddenly, rangers on motorcycles raced through the park, calling on visitors to head straight for the exits. But the wind was strong and the fire spread extremely quickly. Too fast for 60-year-old Patricia Araya, her two one- and nine-year-old grandchildren and her 92-year-old mother.

Araya lived in a small house in the park where she had maintained a greenhouse for forty years. The fire reached their home before park rangers did. When they arrived to evacuate them, the building was already on fire.

On Tuesday, La Pati – as everyone called her – wanted to renew her wedding vows during a ceremony with her long-time husband. She had already taken Friday off to spend time with her grandchildren and her mother.

They all died in the flames. Four of the 123 fire victims so far, of which not even a third have been identified.

Important botanical garden almost completely destroyed

Only two percent of the 107-year-old botanical park – one of the largest in the world with an area of ​​2.5 square kilometers – was spared from the fire.

The park was not only beautiful to see, but also made an important contribution to the protection and research of plants. For decades, more than 1,000 different tree species were grown and researched in this varied garden. These include some of the last Sophoroa Toromiro trees in the world, which are otherwise only found on Rapa Nui or Easter Island.

These were also among the saved two percent, just like the gingko biloba trees from Japan. The latter have already survived their second major tragedy – after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. As part of the ‘Hiroshima Green Legacy’ program, seeds from trees that had survived the atomic bomb were sent to countries around the world.

Yet the loss of the rest of the garden is enormous: Noelia Alvarez de Roman, Latin America specialist at Botanic Gardens Conversation International, a global network of botanical gardens, is shocked. She explains to the New York Times:

The garden was home to many rare cacti, exotic plants and medicinal plants, and he played a key role in their conservation.

Forest fires occur again and again in Chile. They are also no strangers to the employees in the botanical garden. In 2013 and 2022, a quarter of the park was destroyed by fires. Park rangers are aware of the danger and therefore patrol the most vulnerable areas every day. However, this fire took them completely by surprise, park director Alejandro Peirano told the New York Times.

Arson suspected

The reason for this could be deliberate arson. According to Valparaíso Governor Rodrigo Mundaca, a major fire broke out at 2 p.m. on Friday – in several places, just a few meters apart. He expressed his anger to the Chilean newspaper “La Tercera”:

According to Mundaca, deliberately set fires had already been extinguished the day before. Chilean President Gabriel Boric also announced on Friday that an investigation was underway into whether the fires may have been deliberately set. 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.

The forestry authority recorded 180 fires across the country on Monday, covering a total area of ​​almost 29,000 hectares. The day before there were 159 fires over an area of ​​28,000 hectares. About 15,000 homes were damaged or destroyed on Sunday, according to the Interior Ministry. There are more than 12,000 in Viña del Mar alone, said Secretary of the Interior Manuel Monsalve.

Help from the US

In view of the devastating forest fires in Chile, the United States has offered aid to the South American country. “The US is ready to provide the necessary support to the Chilean people,” US President Joe Biden said on Monday evening (local time). “The United States stands with Chile during this difficult time.”

The US itself is repeatedly hit by devastating forest fires and has a lot of experience in fighting them. This is also not the first time the US has helped: Firefighting planes from the United States have been repeatedly deployed to similar major fires in Chile in recent years.

The help is needed because the flames are still raging: 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 10,000 hectares, it was said on Monday.

The number of victims could rise even further; hundreds of people are still missing.

(With material from the SDA and DPA news agencies)