Chile wildfires kill 18, destroy hundreds of homes - VIDEO
Chilean President Gabriel Boric said Sunday that the death toll from wildfires sweeping the country’s south-central region has reached 18 and is expected to climb further.
“Today we have a confirmed number of 18 fatalities, but unfortunately we are certain that this figure will rise,” Boric told reporters in Concepcion, in the Biobio region, about 500 km south of Santiago, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
Preliminary estimates indicate that roughly 300 homes have been destroyed in Biobio alone, with the final figure possibly exceeding 1,000.
Authorities have imposed curfews starting Saturday evening in the municipalities of Penco, Nacimiento, and Laja. In Lirquen, one of the hardest-hit areas, the curfew began earlier and remains in effect indefinitely after fires affected nearly 80 percent of the locality.
According to the National Forestry Corporation, Chile currently has 14 active wildfires under red alert, with over 24,000 hectares burned nationwide. The largest blaze, in Concepcion, has affected more than 10,600 hectares.
To tackle the emergency, Boric has declared a state of catastrophe in the regions of Nuble and Biobio.
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