{"id":281,"date":"2026-01-18T19:15:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T19:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/?p=281"},"modified":"2026-01-18T19:15:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T19:15:16","slug":"chile-declares-state-of-catastrophe-as-deadly-wildfires-menace-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/?p=281","title":{"rendered":"Chile declares ‘state of catastrophe’ as deadly wildfires menace cities"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chilean President Gabriel Boric has declared a state of catastrophe in two regions where deadly wildfires are raging.<\/b><\/p>\n

At least 16 people are confirmed dead in the \u00d1uble and Biob\u00edo regions, about 500km (300 miles) south of the capital Santiago. At least 20,000 have been evacuated.<\/p>\n

The most dangerous fire has swept through dry forests bordering the coastal city of Concepci\u00f3n. About 250 homes have been destroyed, disaster officials said.<\/p>\n

Local media show pictures of charred cars in the streets. Chile has experienced a series of devastating fires in recent years, worsened by long-term drought.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Chile’s forestry agency, Conaf, said firefighters were battling a total of 24 fires across the country on Sunday. The most threatening, it added, were in \u00d1uble and Biob\u00edo.<\/p>\n

“In light of the serious ongoing wildfires, I have decided to declare a state of catastrophe” in the two regions, Boric said in a post on X. “All resources are available,” he added.<\/p>\n

The fires have affected 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) in the two regions so far, local media say.<\/p>\n

The bulk of the evacuations were carried out in the cities of Penco and Lirquen, just north of Concepci\u00f3n, which have a combined population of 60,000.<\/p>\n

Strong winds have fanned the flames amid summer temperatures, endangering communities and hampering firefighting efforts.<\/p>\n

Much of Chile is under heat alerts, with temperatures expected to reach 38C between Santiago and Biob\u00edo in the next two days.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, forest fires\u00a0killed at least 120 people\u00a0in the Valpara\u00edso region near Santiago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Patients<\/picture><\/span>Image source,<\/span>EPA<\/span><\/div>
Image caption,<\/span><\/p>\n
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Patients from Penco hospital near Concepci\u00f3n were among the 20,000 people evacuated<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chilean President Gabriel Boric has declared a state of catastrophe in two regions where deadly wildfires are raging. At least 16 people are confirmed dead…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":283,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions\/283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}