Santiago de Chile, Feb 4 (EFE). – Chilean President Gabriel Boric declared two days of national mourning as he reported Sunday that 99 people have died in the devastating fires that are consuming the Valparaiso region, 100 kilometers east of Santiago (62 miles), and warned that the number “will increase significantly.”
“This is the greatest tragedy we have experienced as a country since the earthquake of Feb. 27, 2010,” Boric said.
“I have declared two days of national mourning, starting tomorrow, Monday, because it is the whole of Chile that suffers and mourns our dead,” the president added.
Boric pointed out, from Quilpué, a town that has been hard hit by the flames, that “one of the most urgent problems is the recovery of the bodies of the victims.”
Given the conflicting statements from various local and regional authorities, Boric also announced that from now on the Forensic Medical Service (SML) will be the only official body to provide updates on the number of deaths.
“These figures must be handled with extreme care (…) It is important to centralize this information and provide certainty to the entire population,” he said.
According to the latest report from the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF), there are at least seven fires currently burning in Valparaiso, the largest in the Peñuelas/Las Tablas Lake Reserve, next to the main highway, which has already burned almost 9,300 hectares.
This fire, along with the one in Lo Moscoso, which has burned 1,350 hectares, is of particular concern due to its virulence and proximity to densely populated areas.
Authorities are hoping that the slight drop in temperature and increase in humidity recorded on Sunday will help control the active outbreaks and allow rescue services to enter the most devastated areas.
“Today’s priority is to save lives, care for the injured, and control active outbreaks,” said Boric, who decided to maintain the curfew “as long as necessary” to facilitate evacuation efforts.
Because of the simultaneity of the fires and the location where they started, authorities believe that several may have been intentionally set.
“It is hard to believe that there could be such wretched and heartless people capable of causing so much death and pain, but if these people exist, we will look for them, we will find them, and they will face not only the rejection of the entire society but also the full weight of the law,” Boric added.
It is estimated that between 3,000 and 6,000 homes have been affected by the fire, and the Ministry of Health has issued an alert in the area.
The mayor of Viña del Mar, one of the worst affected cities, said minutes earlier that the municipality had a preliminary estimate of 372 missing people, which does not mean that all of them are dead, but it gives an idea of the magnitude of the tragedy. EFE
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