Four people dead in Chile forest fires caused by heatwave

SANTIAGO: Chile has declared a state of disaster in several central-southern regions after a devastating heat wave provoked forest fires that left four people dead, authorities said on Friday.

More than 100 homes have been affected and 29,000 hectares of forest destroyed since the fires broke out on Wednesday. “Regretfully we must ... confirm that four people died. They were moving in vehicles” in the Biobio region, said Interior Minister Carolina Toha.

The government has declared a state of disaster in the regions of Nuble and Biobio, but fires have also affected the regions of Maule and La Araucania. President Gabriel Boric decided to suspend his holidays to visit the affected area, where there are 178 active fires.

Of those, 39 are out of control. Toha said two of the dead were killed when the fires engulfed the road they were traveling on, while the other two died in a car accident, presumably while trying to escape the inferno.