The death toll from the forest fires in Chili has risen to 12 people and at least 2000 homes have now been burned to the ground. Si you read that correct. Two Thousand homes! The fires have reached the urban area of the town of Valparaiso and is still buring out of control. Over 10,000 people have been evacuated including a prison for women in the area. Hot dry winds are fanning the embes and flames and even some of the fires that authorities earlier claimed were contained raged out of control again.
The fire began last Saturday afternoon in a ravine covered with thick forest. Squallid housing was near by and the fire reached those homes and grew immediately. Hot ashes rained down onto the roofs of wooden houses and on the narrow streets of Valparaiso. The town does not have a community water system. Six neighborhoods were reduced to ashes on top of hills surrounding the town. The fire also burned atop a hill not far from Chili’s parliament building. Chili’s el Presidente Michelle Bachelet deployed 20 helicopters and aircraft to drop water on hotspots. Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo warned that the death toll could rise sharply once the fire cooled and officials could get into the many burned neighborhoods. In addition to the dead and missing at least 500 people have been treated in area hospitals for smoke inhalation and other related issues.
The town is a picturesque community by the sea with a population of 250,000. This is the worst fire since 1953 for the community. Chili’s military has been put in charge of maintaining civil order. Valparaiso has a beautiful port and is home to Chili’s parliament. It is surrounded by several hills and some neighborhoods huge the hills so steep that people reach their homes only by cable cars or stairways. Mayor Jorge Castro told reporters that the people of the town are partly to blame for the raging fire and damage. He said, “We are too vulnerable as a city. We have been the builders and architects of our own danger.” He was referring to the many homes of the poor that have been built without power or proper water or natural gas and the narrow streets. Most of the homes are built from wood as well.
Yet, even in the upper class neighborhoods below the hills water was in short supply and a water emergency was declared which cut off supplies to some in the community. Residents say that everything is burning and thick clouds of smoke fill the skies.
The poor are losing everything as they are the people who primarily live atop the hills above the city. Most of their homes were little more than patched together shacks. Their dry wood construction has made them a tinderbox for the fire which is buring atop the hills and has not yet reached the more affluent part of the city below.
El Bestia! The Beast; aka the Death Trains 
