Santa Olga, a town of about 6,000 people located about 220 miles south of the Chilean Capital of Santiago, was completely consumed by the flames that destroyed buildings, farms, and livestock, reports Time.
Most all the residents were evacuated, but firefighters found the charred remains of one person in the ruins and two people have been reported as missing. One firefighter lost his life Wednesday while evacuating a family to safety, bringing the number of firefighter deaths to four since the blazes began.
“What we have experienced here is literally like Dante’s Inferno,” Carlos Valenzuela, the mayor of the neighboring coastal city of Constitucion was quoted as saying by Time. “We were recovering after the last earthquake, but this tragedy has messed up everything.”
President Michelle Bachelet has declared a state of emergency, deployed troops, and asking the international community for help in what Bachelet is calling “the greatest forest disaster” in Chile’s history.” The United States sent a Boeing 747-400 “Supertanker” that arrived on Wednesday, and Russia has also sent a super-tanker capable of carrying tons of water, reports the BBC.
Chile’s 5,000 firefighters have already been stretched thin, and 30 wildfires are still blazing. The economic impact has yet to be assessed, but numerous farms, vineyards, and livestock have been destroyed, reports the Guardian. Almost 239,000 hectares (591,000 acres) have already been destroyed across the country.
The fires are being investigated by the government. Not only is climate change playing a role in the spread of the fires, but poor forest management and tourist negligence is being cited as adding to the problem. Biologist, Mary Kalin Arroyo of the University of Chile commented on the plantations of non-indigenous forests, such as eucalyptus and pine.
She says these trees help in spreading the fires more quickly. “About 42 percent of the forest fires are in plantation forests, which are like matchboxes.” Because of this revelation, the timber and wood pulp industry may end up being investigated.
