Chile: Raging Wildfires Kill More Than 100

Facts

• Chile has declared a state of emergency after massive wildfires killed at least 112 people in the country's central Valparaíso region. The toll is expected to rise as about 40 of the 164 wildfires reported till now are active.¹
• The fires broke out Friday and have left 1.6K people homeless, destroying entire neighborhoods, along with a nearly century-old botanical garden and 8K hectares of forest area.²
• Chilean Pres. Gabriel Boric has announced two days of national mourning from Monday and warned the country of more bad news as it faces a 'tragedy of very great magnitude.'³
• The cities of Viña del Mar, Limache, Quilpué, and Villa Alemana are now under curfew reportedly to make way for emergency vehicles and firefighters. The cause of the forest fires is being probed.⁴
• The military has deployed to assist firefighters and helicopters are spraying water to douse the blaze, arguably the country's worst national disaster since the 2010 earthquake.⁵
• Wildfires are not uncommon during summers in the Southern Hemisphere, and high temperatures in some impacted areas have reached 104°F (40°C). In February 2023, raging wildfires killed at least 24 and destroyed an estimated 270K hectares.⁶

Sources: ¹Washington Post, ²Guardian, ³Reuters (a), ⁴BBC News, ⁵US News & World Report and ⁶Reuters (b).

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by GulfToday. Climate change-driven extreme weather has worsened forest fires in Chile. Record heatwaves and unusually high temperatures have turned a general summer phenomenon into an unprecedented environmental disaster which, in the absence of a comprehensive response, threatens to destroy the ecological balance and cause unforeseeable harm to human habitats.
• Narrative B, as provided by EL PAÍS English. The culprit behind the extended hot and dry conditions — including low humidity and high wind speeds — isn't climate change but the El Niño weather phenomenon. It has caused droughts and led to hotter-than-usual temperatures along western South America, increasing the risk of forest fires. This is a natural phenomenon and outside the scope of Chile's climate mitigation efforts.