More than a hundred homes were burned and more than 350 people were affected by a forest fire that spread to populated areas in a municipality on the tourist island of Chiloe in Chile, in the south of the country.
Alejandro Verges, regional director of the National Emergency Office of the Ministry of Interior (UNIMI), told Reuters that the fire in the city of Castro, which was brought under control at night, turned into secondary sources of fire on Friday morning.
“We are in the process of removing rubble and putting out secondary sources because fortunately during the night it was possible to contain the fire and contain the fire,” said the official, who was in the area to coordinate meetings with local authorities.
“What we are working on today is putting out the outbreaks and creating fires in case the winds change during the afternoon,” he added. The official said most of the damaged homes were built with light materials, wood and zinc, but they are not traditional homes on wooden stakes in the water.
Onemi in the Los Lagos region where the Chiloé Archipelago is located – about 1,000 kilometers south of Santiago – has declared a red alert for the fire, which has consumed nearly 3.8 hectares of vegetation cover in Castro.
The Chilean Minister of the Interior, Rodrigo Delgado, reported on Friday that a communal state disaster had been declared in the Castro municipality with the aim of delivering aid as soon as possible to those affected by a major fire.
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