Extreme heat drives Chile wildfires leaving at least 51 dead. Authorities battled fires in the coastal tourist region of Valparaiso amid an intense summer heat wave, with temperatures soaring to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) over the weekend.
https://phys.org/news/2024-05-extreme-chile-wildfires-dead.html
by Wagamaga
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Authorities warned Sunday of “complicated” conditions as they battled fires in the coastal tourist region of Valparaiso amid an intense summer heat wave, with temperatures soaring to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) over the weekend.
Dense gray smoke blanketed the city of Vina del Mar on the country’s central coast Saturday, forcing residents to flee.
Rosana Avendano, a 63-year-old kitchen assistant, was away from home when the fire began to sweep through the El Olivar neighborhood, where she lives with her husband.
“It was terrible because I couldn’t get (to my house). The fire came here… we lost everything,” Avendano told AFP.
“My husband was lying down and began to feel the heat of the fire coming and he ran away.”