At least 24 people have died in the forest fires that are ravaging several regions of Chile. “All my thoughts go out to the families of the victims and to the heroes who are fighting against the flames,” said Emmanuel Macron.
Firefighters were fighting dozens of forest fires in Chile on Sunday, one of the biggest natural disasters in years in the Latin American country, which claimed at least 24 dead and nearly a thousand wounded.
“The Chilean people can count on the support of France to fight against this scourge”, affirmed on social networks in the night from Sunday to Monday the President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron.
“Tragic fires are ravaging several regions of Chile. All my thoughts are with the families of the victims and the heroes who are fighting against the flames,” he wrote.
Nearly 300,000 hectares burned
In Chile, the government of President Gabriel Boric has declared a state of emergency in three mainly rural regions in the south of the country to speed up the arrival of relief.
A handful of countries pledged to help Chile, including sending planes and expert teams, as blazes swept through three forest and agricultural regions near the heart of the Pacific coast.
Some 270,000 hectares have been ravaged by the fires, according to an official announcement made on Sunday, against a backdrop of a heat wave complicating the efforts of firefighters to extinguish the flames. In some areas, the summer temperature exceeded 40 degrees.
