Star Metro - Cooler temperatures offer respite for Chile firefighters

The wildfires have consumed 35,000 hectares (86,000 acres) of land in Biobio and Nuble regions, an area the size of the US city of Detroit.

Around 1,000 homes were destroyed or damaged as the fires ripped through hilltop districts in the coastal town of Penco and adjacent port of Lirquen, leaving a blackened landscape of smouldering ruins.

Tuesday brought hope of relief as temperatures plunged and mist cloaked the area near the city of Concepcion, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of the capital Santiago.

More than 3,500 firefighters have been deployed to extinguish the flames.

President Gabriel Boric said Monday they had managed to contain some of the blazes but that new fires had broken out in the Araucania region bordering Biobio.

In Penco and Lirquen, the fires ripped tin roofs off homes, blew out windows and reduced cars to charred carcasses.

In the town of Punta de Parra, north of Lirquen, Manuel Hormazabal set up four tents in the ruins of his house, to shelter his children, grandchildren and two dogs.

The only part of his home left intact was a bathroom.

"We're lacking the essentials here, which is electricity and portable toilets," the 62-year-old gravedigger said.

Nataly Gonzalez, a 41-year-old living in the center of Penco, said her home escaped damage but that relatives living in Lirquen, who "lost absolutely everything," had yet to receive any state help.

She said her relatives were trying to clear rubble and ash from their homes "without helmets and with burnt tools."

Wildfires have severely impacted south-central Chile in recent years, especially in its warmest and driest summer months of January and February.

A 2024 study led by researchers at the Santiago-based Center for Climate and Resilience Research found climate change had "conditioned the occurrence of extreme fire seasons in south-central Chile" by contributing to a long-term drying and warming trend.

In February 2024, several fires broke out near the city of Vina del Mar, northwest of Santiago, resulting in 138 deaths, according to the public prosecutor's office.

D.Fraser--SMC