CHILE has extended an emergency declaration to yet another region as firefighters struggled to control dozens of wildfires that have killed at least 23 people.
The latest emergency order on Saturday covers the southern region of Araucania, next to the previously declared Biobio and Nuble regions, located near the middle of the South American country’s long Pacific coastline.
The measure allows the government to mobilise the military to help battle the fires.
“Weather conditions have made it very difficult to put out [the fires] that are spreading and the emergency is getting worse,” Interior Minister Carolina Toha told reporters at a news conference in the Chilean capital, Santiago.
“We need to reverse that curve,” she added.
Some 11 of the victims, or nearly half of those reported killed so far, died in the town of Santa Juana in Biobio, located some 500km (310 miles) south of Santiago.
The deaths also included a Bolivian pilot who died when a helicopter that was helping combat the flames crashed in Araucania. A Chilean mechanic also died in the crash.
Some 232 wildfires were still active on Saturday, according to authorities, including 16 that sparked to life earlier in the day, as local temperatures in the southern hemisphere summer exceeded 40C (104F).
Chile’s disaster mitigation agency said 151 of the fires were now under control, while official data released late Friday showed that some 40,000 hectares (99,000 acres) have been burned by the fires.
