Days after devastating fires ravaged Chile’s Pacific coast, officials said Sunday that at least 64 people had been killed and hundreds remained missing and warned that the death toll could rise sharply.
“That number will increase, we know it will increase significantly,” President Gabriel Boric said on Sunday, describing the fires in the Valparaíso region as the country’s worst disaster since the catastrophic 2010 earthquake that left more than 400 people dead. 1.5 million people dead and displaced.
Thousands of homes have been destroyed by fires that have devastated the coastal hills towards the town of Viña del Mar since Friday, driven by strong winds.
The fires broke out while many were on holiday in Viña del Mar and devastated hillside settlements from which many older residents were unable to escape.
Omar Castro Vázquez, whose house was destroyed in the El Olivar settlement, said an 80-year-old neighbor died in the fire.
“It was more like a nuclear bomb than a fire,” Castro, 72, said. “There’s nothing left.”
The destruction in Valparaíso comes as dozens of fires are burning in central and southern Chile, amid what officials say are higher-than-normal temperatures for this time of year.
Many other South American countries have also struggled to contain the fires. In Colombia, fires have broken out in several parts of the country, including the capital Bogota, in recent weeks amid a spell of dry weather.
Firefighters also intervened in Ecuador, Venezuela and Argentina.
The cyclical climate phenomenon known as El Niño has exacerbated drought and high temperatures in parts of the continent, creating conditions that experts say are ripe for forest fires.
By dawn Sunday, streaks of smoke clung to the hills above Viña del Mar. Along the highway to the coast, land banks and bridges were charred and tree stumps burned on the slopes. The charred carcasses of cars littered the streets.
Early signs point to faulty evacuation orders, which some residents say may have contributed to the death count.
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Mr Castro Vázquez, from El Olivar, said residents had fled to a local square when a mobile phone alert came in around 6pm on Friday. They were given no instructions other than that they had to flee, he said.
Black smoke rose up a hill from a botanical garden on the other side of the hill, he said, and within minutes their community was engulfed in tall orange flames.
Another resident, Andrés Calderón, 40, said several people in the neighborhood did not want to leave their homes, fearing thieves would rob them.
On Friday, he got the alert, jumped in his car and drove through smoke so thick he said he had to turn on his headlights.
“It was like entering hell,” Calderón said, “I couldn’t see, the wind was pushing the car almost off the road. I kept driving.”
By Sunday, the densely built-up area had been reduced to rubble. The roadsides were covered in corrugated metal and piled up debris, everything blackened and smelling of smoke.
Mr. Castro, a retired dock worker, said he had lost all his clothes, belongings, documents and part of his pension, which he had withdrawn and kept in cash.
Residents helped each other remove rubble and burnt appliances from the shells of their homes. Some wore motorcycle gloves, others gardening gloves.
“I didn’t cry, I didn’t come to terms with it. I just focus on cleaning my house and my neighbor’s house,” she said. “We’re broken.”
The mayor of Viña del Mar, Macarena Ripamonti, declared in a press conference on Sunday morning that 372 people were missing on Saturday night. She said officials would ensure the bodies of those who died in the fires were removed as quickly as possible.
“They are our neighbors, they are our family, they are our friends, they are people from Viña del Mar. This moves the population,” he said. “People are experiencing the worst situation.”
Natalie Alcoba contributed reporting from Buenos Aires.
