A wildfire ravaged woods and burned 100 homes in the hilly Chilean port city of Valparaiso, where authorities on Monday evacuated hundreds of people.
At least 19 people were reported hurt after the fire broke out on the outskirts of the historic port city, the government said.
TV images showed thick gray smoke filling the streets in the Laguna Verde district, where the blaze struck, and flames devouring green hillsides.
Photo: Reuters
Hundreds of firefighters, along with water-dumping airplanes and helicopters, were battling the blaze, officials said.
“Emergency protocols have been activated,” Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said on Twitter, expressing “solidarity with the people affected.”
The flames had “damaged 100 homes in an area where there are 500,” Chilean Undersecretary of Home Affairs Mahmud Aleuy told a news conference late on Monday.
He said 19 people had been hurt, mostly by inhaling smoke, but added that there had been no fatalities.
The flames destroyed 50 hectares of woodland, the Chilean Ministry of the Interior’s National Office of Emergency said in a statement.
Fanned by strong winds in hot summer weather, the fire broke out in the hilly region that makes Valparaiso a picturesque tourist destination.
About 200 people were evacuated from their homes as a precaution, the office added.
Electricity providers said they had cut power to nearly 48,000 customers as a precaution, while authorities issued a maximum red alert.
Valparaiso, 120km northwest of the capital, Santiago, is home to the Chilean National Congress.
Laguna Verde lies on the southern outskirts of Valparaiso, a sprawling city built on 40 hills with stunning sea views. Dubbed the “jewel of the Pacific,” the picturesque colonial city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Thousands of tourists travel there every year to stroll its narrow cobbled streets and ride cable cars up the steep hills.
Wildfires killed 15 people in 2014 and destroyed thousands of homes in the area, particularly in the city’s poorer neighborhoods. The wooden structures with their tin roofs, perched on tinder-dry hillsides, were quickly engulfed in that fire.
More blazes in March 2015 killed one woman and forced thousands of people from their homes.
The city is home to 270,000 people, many living in brightly-colored houses on the hillsides.
In its heyday from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, Valparaiso became famous as a stopover point for ships steaming down to the continent’s southern tip and on to the Atlantic.
The 1914 opening of the Panama Canal prompted a spectacular drop in traffic to Valparaiso and an end to the port’s glory days. It now relies heavily on tourism, and living standards are lower than the average in Chile.
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