Two dead, 400 homes damaged in Chilean seaside resort town fire
CHILE (MNP) – At least two people died and some 400 homes have been damaged or destroyed in a fire that broke out Thursday in the Chilean seaside resort of Vina del Mar, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency.
The flames, fanned by strong gusts of wind, spread from the upper areas of town down ravines and hills in the span of just a few hours to the lowest and most inhabited sections of the city, located some 120 kilometers (75 miles) from Santiago.
The blaze, which has already burned some 110 hectares (270 acres), has a “rapid spread, high heat intensity and dispersion,” the National Emergency Office (Onemi) said.
Several neighborhoods and one informal settlement were ordered evacuated.
President Gabriel Boric s administration declared a state of emergency in light of the fire s ferocity.
“The president of the republic has instructed the declaration of a state of constitutional exception of catastrophe due to public calamity” in the Valparaiso region, where Vina del Mar is located, said Manuel Monsalve, assistant secretary to the minister of the interior.
“There was a very quick response to the beginning of the fire but despite this, as a result of the location where the fire developed, the weather conditions, the wind and the presence of combustible material, it spread very aggressively and quickly,” Monsalve said.
The fire was fanned by wind gusts of 40 to 50 kilometers (25 to 30 miles) per hour, which has complicated work for firefighters and forest rangers.
