Firefighters battle a blaze in the town of Florida in the Biobio region in south-central Chile on January 23.
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The Worst Wildfires in Chile’s History Revealed in Pictures
A number of factors have conspired against the central region of Chile, resulting in 77 active wildfires and 714,000 acres burned.
SantiagoIt’s been over 10 days of the same dynamic: a fire gets put out and another lights up a few miles away. Firemen, the military, and volunteers run from place to place, trying to suffocate the unleashed hell that is sweeping through the central parts of Chile, home of vineyards, farmlands, and the ecoregion of Mediterranean Chile, one of five climatic regions of its type in the world.
The disaster is such that Santa Olga, a town of 4,000 in the south, was completely overrun. People managed to escape with the clothes on their backs.
A number of factors have conspired against the central region of Chile, resulting in 77 active wildfires and 714,000 acres (289,000 hectares) burned. Extreme temperatures, planted forests,
