112 dead as a result of forest fires in Chile

The death toll from intense wildfires raging in Valparaíso region in central Chile has climbed to at least 112, in the largest tragedy the country has known in two decades.

The Interior Ministry said late Sunday that the medical examiner’s office had received 112 dead victims, 32 of whom have been identified, and that there are 40 fires still active in the country.

The AFP news agency reported that some of the dead were seen lying on the road, covered by sheets.

“I’ve been talking to residents here over the last hour or so and everybody’s been saying that they keep finding bodies and these are bodies that have not been included in the official death count,” journalist John Bartlett, who is near the city of Valparaiso, told DW on Sunday.

Chile’s forestry authority registered 159 fires across the country on Sunday, covering an area totaling almost 28,000 hectares.

Officials said that thousands of houses have been damaged or destroyed, including more than 3,000 in the Valparaíso region alone.

The coastal region west of the capital Santiago is the worst affected, where authorities have introduced a curfew starting at 9:00 p.m. Saturday (0000 GMT Sunday).

The fires forced authorities to close the road linking Valparaiso to Santiago on Friday, as a huge mushroom cloud of smoke impaired visibility.

The wildfires are now reported to be lapping the outer edges of the cities of Vina del Mar and Valparaiso, coastal cities popular with tourists.

The fires are due to a summer heat wave and drought affecting the southern part of South America, due to the El Niño weather phenomenon, amid warnings from scientists that rising global temperatures increase the risk of natural disasters such as extreme heat and fires.

While Chile and Colombia face rising temperatures, a heat wave threatens to sweep through Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil in the coming days.

Souha Suleiman