News Desk
SANTIAGO: Chile has declared a widened state of emergency to yet another region as authorities struggled to contain dozens of wildfires that have killed at least 23 people.
Almost half of those killed so far reportedly died in the town of Santa Juana in Biobio, some 500 kilometres south of Santiago.
The agriculture minister, Esteban Valenzuela, said that an emergency-support helicopter also crashed in the southern region of La Araucanía, killing the pilot and a mechanic.
Nearly a thousand people have also been reported injured, while over 1,100 have sought refuge in shelters.
The latest emergency on Saturday covers the southern region of Araucania, adjacent to the previously declared Biobio and Nuble regions, near the middle of Chile’s long Pacific coastline.
Around 232 wildfires still active in Chile
Around 232 wildfires were still underway in the South American country on Saturday as local temperatures in the southern hemisphere summer surged over 40C (104F).
The country’s disaster mitigation agency said 151 of the blazes were now under control. Meanwhile, around 40,000 hectares (99,000 acres) have been burned by the fires, according to official data released late on Friday.
