Death toll from forest fires in Chile rises to 46

Forest fires raging in central Chile have killed at least 46 people, President Gabriel Boric said on Saturday, warning that the death toll will likely continue to rise.

Black smoke billowed into the sky over many parts of the Valparaiso region, home to nearly a million people in central Chile, as firefighters, using helicopters and trucks, struggled to contain the flames.

Areas around the coastal resort town of Vina del Mar were some of the hardest hit and rescue teams were struggling to reach all affected areas, Chilean authorities said on Saturday.

President Boric, updating the nation, said 40 people died in the fires and six others died from burns in hospitals.

“Given the conditions of the tragedy, the number of victims will certainly increase in the coming hours,” Boric said. “The situation is really very difficult.”

The death toll means this is the deadliest wave of forest fires in Chile in the last decade, Chilean disaster agency Senapred said.

Across the country, there were 92 active fires, leaving more than 43,000 hectares affected by the incident, Interior Minister Carolina Toha said earlier in the day, when she reported 19 deaths.

Forest fires are not uncommon in Chile during the summer months, and last year, following a record heatwave, around 27 people died and more than 400,000 hectares were affected.

“The area with fires today is much smaller than last year, (but) right now the number of hectares affected is multiplying very quickly,” said Interior Minister Carolina Toha.

Between Friday and Saturday, the hectares impacted by the fires increased from 30 thousand to 43 thousand.

Toha said authorities' biggest concern was that some of the active fires were developing very close to urban areas “with a very high potential to affect people, homes and facilities.”

*Natalia Ramos and Jorge Vega collaborated