According to the latest bulletin from Chilean authorities Sunday, at least 112 people had been killed as wildfires kept multiplying nationwide during the weekend, particularly in the Valparaiso region. Some 40,000 people have been left homeless or displaced, it was also reported.
At least ten people were reported Friday to have died in Chile as forest firest gripped the Valparaíso area, where President Gabriel Boric Font decreed a state of emergency.
Global conservation group World Wildlife Fund (WWF) warned on Thursday of the risks from new faster-spreading super fires in the wake of heat waves and droughts that have been afflicting Europe in what many see as a symptom of climate change.
Crews battling a deadly wildfire in northern California have managed to hold their containment lines, the state fire service says. They have contained 30% of the fire, stretching over 125,000 acres (50,500 ha), but do not expect to contain it fully until the end of the month.
Roughly 12,000 wildfires burn each year in Argentina, charring more than 1.3 million hectares (5,000 square miles) of forest and grasslands. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured an image of one of them on January 29, 2018.