Chilean officials later on Friday (Dec 23) claimed that the massive fire at the resort will be controlled by the end of the day. He added that the incident claimed lives of two and damaged some 400 houses.
The president’s office on Thursday declared a state of emergency after a fire broke out in a seaside resort of Vina del Mar.
The National Emergency Office (Onemi) said that the fire burned around 110 hectares (270 acres) which spread rapidly with high heat intensity and dispersion.
Watch | Heatwave hit Chile with record-high temperatures; heatwave exacerbates forest fire
Manuel Monsalve, assistant secretary to the minister of interior said, “The president of the republic has instructed the declaration of a state of constitutional exception of catastrophe due to public calamity.”
“There was a very quick response to the beginning of the fire but despite this, as a result of the location where the fire developed, the weather conditions, the wind and the presence of combustible material, it spread very aggressively and quickly,” he added.
According to officials, some four hundred firefighters and 150 forest rangers were at the site fighting the fire.
Assuring safety, city’s commander Patricio Brito on Twitter said, “We will not leave you.”
(With inputs from agencies)
