Forest fires in Chile kill at least 15 people and force more than 50,000 to evacuate

Out of control wildfires in southern Chile have killed at least 15 people and forced more than 50,000 to evacuate, the government said on Sunday.

The Minister of Security, Luis Cordero, gave figures of 14 fires that have been burning for two days in the regions of Nuble and Biobío, about 300 miles south of Santiago.

President Gabriel Boric declared a state of emergency as nearly 4,000 firefighters battled flames fueled by gusty winds and hot weather in the southern hemisphere summer. Temperatures were expected to reach up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the region on Sunday and Monday, Reuters news agency reported.

“We are facing a complicated situation,” said Interior Minister Álvaro Elizalde.

The president announced the state of emergency in Nuble and Biobío in a publication on social networks.

“All resources are available,” Boric wrote.

According to Chile’s forestry agency CONAF, more than 20 forest fires were being fought across the country as of Sunday.

“That is why we are calling on everyone to, above all, avoid traveling through the areas where emergency teams work,” the agency wrote on social networks.

The declaration means, among other things, that the armed forces will now intervene.

Alicia Cebrián, director of the National Disaster Prevention and Response Service, said most of the evacuations occurred in the towns of Penco and Lirquén in Biobío, which have a combined population of around 60,000 people.

Matías Cid, a 25-year-old student who lives in Penco, described fast-moving flames that burned during the night and devoured houses.

“We had to leave with our shirts on. If we had stayed another 20 minutes we would have been burned alive,” Cid told News.

All but one of the deaths so far occurred in Penco, its mayor Rodrigo Vera said.

Lirquén, a small port town, was also hard hit and many people ran to the beach to save themselves, said resident Alejandro Arredondo, 57.

“There’s nothing left standing,” he said as he looked out over a burning landscape of metal and wood that used to be people’s homes.

Sunday’s weather forecast was bad for firefighters: high temperatures and strong winds, said Esteban Krause, head of a forest preservation agency in Biobío.

Forest fires have seriously affected south-central Chile in recent years.

In February 2024, several fires broke out simultaneously near the city of Viña del Mar, northwest of Santiago, causing 138 deaths, according to the Public Ministry.

About 16,000 people were affected by those fires, officials said.