Chile Fire Update: 15 Dead, 15,000 Homeless; Find Out How Long Officials Are Saying Blaze Will Burn

EFE reported on Tuesday that Chilean authorities have so far confirmed 15 deaths in fires which continue to consume Valparaíso, a Pacific-coast city of about 250,000 residents. Chile’s interior minister Rodrigo Peñailillo said during a press conference on Monday night that 2,500 homes have also been destroyed, leaving more than 15,000 people homeless. He added that firefighters are using 27 planes at key points in an attempt to try to contain the blaze. But experts say it will likely be some time before authorities can put it out completely.

“It’s impossible to put out this fire in less than 20 days because the actual internal combustion of the trees makes the asphyxiation very slow,” said UN international risk and emergency expert Rodrigo Reveco in an interview with Chile’s El Mercurio. Reveco also said that there also exists a possibility that the fire could surge again under certain conditions. “If wind comes, it’s possible that it could reactivate again. It’s the same as with the embers on a charcoal grill.”

Peru’s El Comercio notes that even as the fires still burn, the ease with which the blaze spread from a nearby forest on through hillside neighborhoods -- which are unconnected to city water mains and where housing is often of shoddy material – has sparked debate over how the tragedy could have been avoided. Of the three natural terraces on which the city sits, only two of them saw their development overseen by central planning. Urban planner Iván Poduje told the site that many of the city’s hillside impoverished neighborhoods which were the most severely impacted by the flames, constructions were improvised. “The buildings that you see from the port are well constructed, but behind them and higher up, there’s a lot of poverty, informality and urban segregation,” said Poduje.