They evacuated a city in southern Chile due to a huge forest fire that threatens their homes

fire-chillán chile

The fire It has already consumed 140 hectares and several structures resulted in major damage in the towns of Chillán and Chillán Viejo, in southern Chile, which is why the resident population of the place had to be evacuated. For now, the red alert is maintained in the area until conditions so require, the authorities stated.

After 9:00 p.m. (Chilean time) on the night of Wednesday, the National Disaster Prevention and Response System (Senapred) issued a Yellow Alert and then upgraded it to Red for both the communes of Chillán and Chillán Viejo, communes located 374 kilometers from the capital Santiago , due to a fire started on the Quilmo property, where there are offices of the 9th Regiment of the Army, a firing range, stables, buildings and structures where it is believed that explosives used by the Armed Forces of that area are kept.

As a result Following the advance of the fire, the city of Chillán and its surroundings began to experience forced power cuts. For example, CGE, the General Electricity Company, confirmed a cut with 1,678 customers affected in the early hours of the morning.

For its part, Copelec, the Chillán Electric Power Cooperative, reported the forced disconnection of the Quilmo-Las Termas line, which affected the sectors of Boyen, Pinto, El Rosal, Recinto, Los Lleuques, Atacalco, Las Trancas, Las Termas, Tanilvoro, Coleal , Plum, Lloanco and Tejería. This left, in principle, about 6,000 customers without electricity supply, according to estimates by the same company.

In this sense, and given the situation that took place in hours of the night, the Chillán Fire Department issued the general quartering order to deal with the emergency and residents of the area assured that the flames had already affected the mentioned stables of the military dependencies.

< img class="aligncenter" src="/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/a-city-in-the-south-of-chile-evacuated-due-to-a-huge-forest-fire-that-threatens-its- casas-56c367f.jpg" alt="They evacuated a city in southern Chile due to a huge forest fire that threatens their homes" />

Fire in Chillán.

In the same way, until before 9:30 p.m., when the flames began to spread little by little, four ground brigades plus technical personnel and two combat planes were working on the fire. In addition, private forestry companies, including Arauco, also contributed resources, specifically five small planes and five helicopters, which had to stop operating at nightfall.

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For his part, the mayor of Chillán, Camilo Benavente, reported live, in conversation with the Chilean medium Radio Bío Bío, that the violent fire, started in Quilmo, to the south of the city, reached the urban limit of the city. “We are concerned. We have a large fire. So far 20 hectares have been burnedAnd what is dangerous is that we are very close to the city, on the south-eastern limit of Chillán”, declared the mayor shortly before 01:00 in the morning.

“Some of the lights, I'm here, we see four lights, and they are 50 meters from the houses”, he added. Along with the above, the mayor asked the community not to go look at the flames. “With the beacon included, it took me almost an hour to arrive because there are a thousand vehicles that are in the surroundings. It's not a show. The call is for them not to come near”, he urged.

Despite the magnitude of the catastrophe, the community chief stressed that “there is a powerful force of Firefighters, Conaf (National Forestry Corporation) and municipal personnel.” “There is still a lot of wind. It must be 22°C. They are variables that can be taxed so that this can be expanded at any time. That is my preliminary analysis”, said Camilo Benavente in relation to the high temperatures that have occurred in the area.

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