Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/CHILLAN: Forest fires across south-central Chile have left 24 citizens dead and swallowed up hundreds of homes spread into new places after raging overnight, burning up the habitat of vulnerable woodland birds and animals.
The manager of the wildlife rehabilitation center in Chillan, Valentina Aravena, said that “We call on everyone who can to take care of the forests which are currently on fire, and also of our animals, specimens of vital importance.”
Chile’s national forests association CONAF said that the place affected by the fires had now spread to over 300,000 hectares, the area nearly twice the size of Greater London.
1,180 homes destroyed
Authorities said some 2,180 citizens had been wounded and 1,180 homes had been destroyed, with most of the deaths and destruction in the south-central Biobio, Nuble regions and Araucania.
Interior Minister Carolina Toha said that the government would declare a curfew in some provinces starting on Thursday. She earlier warned of a shortage of water tank and urged providers to make them available.
the rehabilitation center in Chillan, the capital of Ñuble region, veterinarians treated burns on birds and animals native to the woodlands, such as monito del monte, the small nocturnal marsupial, and pudus, the world’s smallest deer.
