Wildfires

Chile wildfires

With all of Valparaiso under military rule early Tuesday, 5,000 firefighters, police, forest rangers, soldiers, sailors and civil defence workers joined in a mammoth fight against wildfires licking around the hilltop shantytowns of this picturesque port city as the disaster entered its fifth day.

Helicopters and aeroplanes dropped water on the flames and smouldering ruins of some of the poor neighbourhoods throughout Monday, the third day since flames first erupted in a forested ravine on the outskirts of Valparaiso and then were quickly spread by strong winds that scattered glowing embers into slums.

An estimated 11,000 people were homeless as the toll of destroyed homes rose to more than 2,500. A contingent of sailors in riot gear stood ready to evacuate 700 more families whose homes could be lost if the winds shifted.

The fires have been so hot they created their own fierce winds, spreading flames that consumed a few entire neighbourhoods of ramshackle housing. Homes stood unscathed in other districts but remained in danger from the embers being whipped through the air.

Valparaiso is an oceanside city of 250,000 people surrounded by 42 ills that form a natural amphitheatre. The compact downtown includes Chile’s congress and its second-largest port, and the city owes its status as a Unesco World Heritage Site to the colourful homes built on slopes so steep that many people commute using stairs and cable cars.