A man is seen during a fire in Santa Juana, Concepcion province, Chile on February 3, 2023. - 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. (Photo by JAVIER TORRES / AFP)
Santiago: The death toll in forest fires raging through Chile has risen to 22. The National Disaster Prevention and Response Service in Chile said that there were 251 active fires, 80 of them out of control. At least 24 people have been injured.
The fires, sparked by a devastating heat wave, have threatened several rural towns, destroying at least 88 homes and sweeping through 47,000 hectares (116,000 acres) of forest, officials said.
Some 2,300 firefighters and 75 aircraft have been deployed in the region.
The heatwave, with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius, prompts fears of a reoccurrence of the 2017 disaster when widespread fires left 11 people dead and nearly 6000 injured, and destroyed more than 1,500 homes.
