Chile's ** department said on the 6th that as of that day, 131 people had died in the forest fires that had raged in the central part of the South American country for several days, and more than 300 people were still unknown.
The fire broke out in the Valparaiso region, Chile in August 2010The worst disaster since the level 8 big **. More than 500 people were killed in that tsunami and the resulting tsunami.
The Chilean Ministry of Justice and Human Rights said that only 35 of the 131 deceased had been identified. **The figures released on the 5th are at least 122 dead and 370 missing. There may be overlap in the number of dead and missing. According to Reuters, many of the bodies are difficult to identify, and forensic examiners take DNA samples from residents who report their family members missing, and the process of comparing them with others can take a long time.
Amid a rubble in the hard-hit city of Viña del Mar, 46-year-old Gabriel Leyva told the Associated Press: "My parents' and my sister's house burned down. The family of my neighbors who watched me grow up burn to death. ”
The forest fire occurred in the eastern suburbs of Viña del Mar on the 2nd, and quickly spread to densely populated areas and nearby towns in dry and strong winds. At the moment, the forest fire is slowly extinguishing, and firefighters continue to extinguish the remaining fires.
During his visit to the disaster area on the 6th, Chile's Gabriel Boric Fonte announced a series of relief measures, including donating furniture used in the 2023 Pan American Games Athletes' Village to residents affected by the fire, and temporarily exempting 9,200 households from household water and electricity bills.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Several Chilean people mentioned that there were several fire points at the same time in this fire, and it cannot be ruled out that it was caused by deliberate arson.
*: CCTV News.