Wildfires sweeping across central and southern Chile killed at least 18 people Sunday, torching thousands of acres of forest and reducing hundreds of homes to ashes as a searing heat wave gripped the country, authorities said.
President Gabriel Boric declared a state of catastrophe in the central Biobio region and neighboring Nuble region, about 500 kilometers (300 miles) south of the capital, Santiago, to accelerate emergency response efforts.
The designation allows broader coordination with the military as firefighters battle more than two dozen active blazes that have already burned about 8,500 hectares (21,000 acres), according to Chile’s national forestry agency.
Speaking from the hard-hit city of Concepcion, Boric offered condolences to the victims and warned that the initial toll, 18 dead and roughly 300 homes destroyed, was likely to rise as the full scale of the devastation becomes clearer.
He said the number of affected homes in the Biobio region alone was "certainly more than a thousand so far.” Fires racing across hillsides forced about 50,000 people to evacuate.
"The first priority, as you know, in these emergencies is always to fight and extinguish the fire,” Boric said. "But we cannot forget at any time that there are human tragedies here, families who are suffering. These are difficult times.”
His remarks followed complaints from local officials who said help was slow to arrive as destruction spread.
"Dear President Boric, from the bottom of my heart, I have been here for four hours. A community is burning and there is no government presence,” Rodrigo Vera, mayor of the small coastal town of Penco in the Biobio region, said earlier Sunday on a local radio station. "How can a minister do nothing but call me to tell me the military will arrive at some point?”
Firefighters struggled to contain the flames, with extreme heat and strong winds hampering efforts. Temperatures reached 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) on Sunday, and authorities said scorching conditions were expected to persist through Monday.
"Weather conditions in the coming hours are not good and point to extreme temperatures,” Interior Minister Alvaro Elizalde said.
Residents said the fires took them by surprise after midnight, trapping some in their homes.
"Many people didn’t evacuate. They stayed because they thought the fire would stop at the edge of the forest,” said John Guzman, 55, surveying the damage in Penco, where thick smoke cast an orange haze over the sky. "It was completely out of control. No one expected it.”
The fire engulfed much of Penco, burning cars, a school and a church. Thousands sought refuge in makeshift emergency shelters.
"We ran with the kids, in the dark,” said Juan Lagos, 52.
Authorities imposed a nighttime curfew in affected areas. Charred bodies were found in fields, homes, along roads and inside vehicles.
"From what we can see, there are people who died, and we knew them well,” said Victor Burboa, 54. "Everyone here knew them.”
Wildfires regularly afflict central and southern Chile during the summer, typically peaking in February as temperatures rise and the country endures a yearslong drought. In 2024, massive fires along Chile’s central coast killed at least 130 people, making them the country’s deadliest natural disaster since a powerful 2010 earthquake.
Neighboring Argentina has also struggled in recent weeks to contain wildfires consuming thousands of acres of forest as southern Patagonia experiences hot, dry conditions.