Wildfires sweeping across central and southern Chile killed at least 18 people Sunday, torching thousands of acres of forest and reducing hundreds of homes to ashes as a searing heat wave gripped the country, authorities said.
President Gabriel Boric declared a state of catastrophe in the central Biobio region and neighboring Nuble region, about 500 kilometers (300 miles) south of the capital, Santiago, to accelerate emergency response efforts.
The designation allows broader coordination with the military as firefighters battle more than two dozen active blazes that have already burned about 8,500 hectares (21,000 acres), according to Chile’s national forestry agency.
Speaking from the hard-hit city of Concepcion, Boric offered condolences to the victims and warned that the initial toll, 18 dead and roughly 300 homes destroyed, was likely to rise as the full scale of the devastation becomes clearer.
He said the number of affected homes in the Biobio region alone was “certainly more than a thousand so far.” Fires racing across hillsides forced about 50,000 people to evacuate.
