Out-of-control forest fires in southern Chile have killed at least 15 people and forced more than 50,000 to evacuate, the Chilean government said on Sunday.
Security Minister Luis Cordero gave a tally of 14 fires burning for two days so far in the Noble and Biobio areas, about 300 miles south of Santiago.
President Gabriel Buric declared a state of emergency as about 4,000 firefighters battled flames fueled by strong winds and hot summer weather in the Southern Hemisphere. Reuters reported that temperatures were expected to reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the region on Sunday and Monday.
“We are facing a complex situation,” Interior Minister Alvaro Elizalde said.
The President declared a state of emergency in Noble and Biobio Post on social media.
“All resources are available,” Buric wrote.
Javier Torres/AP
According to the Chilean forestry agency CONAF, more than 20 forest fires had been battled across the country as of Sunday.
“This is why we are calling on everyone, above all, to avoid traveling through areas where emergency teams are working.” The agency wrote on social media.
Among other things, the announcement means that the armed forces will now participate.
Alicia Ciprian, director of the National Disaster Prevention and Response Service, said most of the evacuations took place in the towns of Benko and Lerkin in Biobio, which have a combined population of about 60,000 people.
Mathias Syed, a 25-year-old student who lives in Benko, described fast-moving flames burning throughout the night and consuming homes.
“We had to leave with the shirts on our backs. If we had stayed another 20 minutes, we would have been burned to death,” Syed told AFP.
City Mayor Rodrigo Vera said that all but one of the dead so far had occurred in the city of Benco.
Alejandro Arredondo, 57, a resident of the city, said that the small coastal city of Lerkin was also badly damaged, with many people saving themselves by escaping to the beach.
“There’s nothing left standing,” he said as he surveyed the scorched area of metal and wood that were once people’s homes.
Lucas Aguayo Aros/Anadolu via Getty Images 
Esteban Krause, head of Biobio’s forest conservation agency, said the weather forecast for Sunday was bad for firefighters, with high temperatures and strong winds.
Forest fires have severely affected south-central Chile in recent years.
In February 2024, Several fires broke out simultaneously near the city of Vina del Mar, northwest of Santiago, killing 138 people, according to the prosecutor’s office.
The authorities said that about 16,000 people were affected by these fires.