Chilean wildfire consumes town

SANTIAGO. — Flames from one of Chile’s worst wildfires completely consumed the town of Santa Olga as the death toll from the blazes since November rose to 10, officials said on Thursday.

The flames engulfed the post office, a kindergarten and about 1 000 homes in the town, located 360 kilometres south of the Chilean capital.

The body of one person was found under the charred remains of the town, which another 6 000 residents fled unharmed. Officials have not identified the person who died.

“This is an extremely serious situation — of horror, a nightmare without an end,” said Carlos Valen- zuela, the mayor of the neighbouring coastal city of Constitucion. “Everything burned.”

Authorities found another body burned inside a house destroyed in the flames about 140km south of Santa Olga in the coastal city of Concepcion, said Andrea Munoz, the governor of Concepcion province. Officials later reported that a fire-fighter also died after a water truck rolled over.

Dozens of teary-eyed fire-fighters took a moment from battling the blazes to pay homage to one of their colleagues who died in the flames late on Wednesday while he evacuated a family to safety.

Two police officers also died on Wednesday.

The series of fast-spreading blazes have destroyed about 160 000 hectares of forest.

The fires have been raging in central and southern Chile, fanned by strong winds, hot temperatures and a prolonged drought.

Emergency services have battled the flames non-stop for days with thousands of fire-fighters on the ground and helicopters and small airplanes in the air.

The ferocity of the flames prompted President Michelle Bachelet’s to declare a state of emergency, deploy troops and ask for international help, calling it “the greatest forest disaster” in Chile’s history. — AP.