CNN
—
At least 22 people have died in connection with widespread forest fires in south-central Chile, according to government officials.
Interior Minister Carolina Tohá confirmed during a news conference on Saturday that 22 people are dead. There are 1,429 people in shelters, 554 injured and 16 suffering severe burns who are in serious condition, she said.
Twenty-eight of the hundreds of fires in Chile in recent days have burned the amount of forest and woodland the country typically loses over the course of a year, Tohá said.
The minister also described record high temperatures in several of the affected regions of Chile.
“The thermometer has reached levels that we’ve never seen until now,” Tohá said.
On Saturday, President Gabriel Boric announced via Twitter that neighboring…
2023-02-04 18:55:04 Chile wildfires leave at least 22 people dead, officials say
Link from www.cnn.com At least 22 people have died in the Chilean wildfires that have been and are still raging across the South American country, officials say.
The Bank of Central Bank of Chile has said that the number of fatalities had risen to 22, with a further 10,000 people forced to evacuate their homes due to the huge and powerful blazes that started just over a week ago.
The relentless fires have led to over 500,000 hectares (1,235,525 acres) of Chile’s countryside, an area greater than four times the size of the nearby city of Santiago, to be sentenced to total devastation. Chilean firefighters have warned that the worst of the fires may not be over yet, as weather forecasts predict that temperatures in the coming days are likely to remain in the high 30s, with wind force of up to 45kph (28mph).
The situation in Chile has been declared to be of national catastrophe and the government has requested urgent international aid to help exhausted and struggling fire crews in their attempts to contain the fires. So far, assistance from neighbouring countries such as Argentina and Peru, has been scarce and the foreign minister Roberto Ampuero has stated that “we Chileans have to show our capacity to solve this situation on our own”.
Ambassador of Chile to the United States, Andres Chadwick has asked the international community to help. “I urge upon all of you the need to help us in this moment of need, and in particular, I want to request a great sense of solidarity,” he said.
To add to the deverstaion, the smoke emitted from the fires has caused the air quality in Chilean cities to decrease to alarming levels, with Santiago’s metropolitan region registering 23 times the safe level of air pollution as per measurements provided by the ministry of environment.
It is a desperate situation that Chile finds itself in and officials are warning it may take weeks or even months to return the area to a livable state.