VALPARAISO, Chile — A raging fire leaped from hilltop to hilltop in this colorful port city throughout the night and day on Sunday, killing at least 11 people and destroying at least 1,000 homes. More than 10,000 people were evacuated, including more than 200 female inmates at a prison.
And with hot dry winds stoking the embers, the fires were still burning out of control as a second night approached.
The blaze began Saturday afternoon in a forested area above ramshackle housing on one of the city’s 42 hilltops, and spread quickly as hot ash rained down over wooden houses and narrow streets. Electricity failed as the fire grew, with towering, sparking flames turning the night sky orange over a darkening horizon.
Eventually, neighborhoods on six hilltops were reduced to ashes, including one hill just several blocks from Chile’s Parliament building. And flames broke out again on at least two of those hills, burning out of control and threatening to consume other neighborhoods.
‘‘It’s a tremendous tragedy. This could be the worst fire in the city’s history,’’ President Michelle Bachelet said as firefighters contained most of the blazes, mobilizing 20 helicopters and planes to drop water on hot spots Sunday.
The fire has destroyed 1,000 houses so far and authorities warned that the toll of death and damage could rise once authorities can enter the smoldering remains. Military Police General Julio Pineda said 11 people were killed.
Earlier Sunday, he said 16 died, but it turned out that one family had been counted twice. More than 500 people were treated at hospitals, mostly for smoke inhalation.
It was already the worst fire to hit the picturesque seaside city of 250,000 people since 1953, when 50 people were killed and every structure was destroyed on several of the city’s hills.
While the fires were contained to the hills, Bachelet declared the entire city a catastrophe zone, putting the military in charge of maintaining order.
‘‘The people of Valparaiso have courage, have strength, and they aren’t alone,’’ she said.
Valparaiso, which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2003, is known for colorful neighborhoods hugging hills so steep that people have to use staircases rather than streets. About 75 miles northwest of the capital, Santiago, it has a vibrant port and is home to Chile’s national legislature.
Oh. That's why it is getting attention.
But many homes in densely populated poorer areas above the city center have been built without water supplies or access points wide enough for firetrucks, so much of the fight was from the air.
‘‘This is the worst catastrophe I’ve seen,’’ said Ricardo Bravo, the regional governor. ‘‘Now we have to make sure the fire doesn’t reach the city center, which would make this emergency much more serious.’’
While 1,250 firefighters, police and forest rangers battled the blaze, 2,000 Chilean sailors in combat gear patrolled streets to maintain order and prevent looting.
Shelters were overflowing.
Maria Elizabeth Diaz, eight months pregnant and trying to rest with her two sons in a shelter set up in Valparaiso’s Greek School, said she had been hesitant to flee her home in Cerro Las Canas when she first learned that the hilltop above her was on fire.
‘‘I didn’t want to move because I was afraid they’d rob me, but I had to flee when I saw the fire was coming down the hill,’’ she said. ‘‘I lost everything. Now I’ve been ordered to rest because I was having contractions.’’
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"Chile’s Valparaiso still aflame; 15 dead; 500 hurt" by Eva Vergara | Associated Press April 15, 2014
VALPARAISO, Chile — Helicopters and airplanes dumped water on wildfires and the smoldering wreckage of hilltop neighborhoods around Valparaiso for a third day Monday as sailors in riot gear prepared to evacuate 700 more families who would be endangered if the winds shift again.
Already 11,000 people were homeless as wildfires propelled embers from hilltop to hilltop, destroying 2,500 homes. As smoke rose from ruins all over the picturesque coastal city, a 15th body was found.
After days without sleep, some people made their way home, only to discover complete ruins. The fires, so hot that they created their own fierce winds, consumed entire neighborhoods in some places. In others, a few houses emerged unscathed, but they remained in danger with so many embers glowing.
Chile’s forestry agency predicted Monday the fires will not be extinguished for another 20 days.
Aid was flowing from all over Chile to Valparaiso, where evacuees crowded into eight shelters. Chile’s president, Michelle Bachelet, met with her ministers to oversee the emergency response.
The fires began Saturday in a forested ravine and quickly consumed ramshackle housing on one of Valparaiso’s 42 hills.
Hot, dry winds blowing out to sea kicked up the embers, which hopped across neighborhoods on six densely populated hills, where people live in poorly constructed homes without municipal water connections, fire hydrants, or streets wide enough for emergency vehicles.
Sunday afternoon’s winds kicked up the flames again, and by Monday morning, the helicopters were still flying without pause, dumping water on hotspots.
Bachelet toured the shelters and canceled this week’s trip to Argentina and Uruguay, warning that it ‘‘could be the worst fire in the city’s history.’’
Valparaiso is an oceanside city of 250,000 people surrounded by hills that form a natural amphitheater. The compact downtown includes Chile’s congress and its second-largest port.
The city owes its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site to the colorful homes built on steep slopes.
Three of the 15 victims were identified, including one man who escaped the flames Saturday but died of a heart attack on Sunday after returning to discover that the flames took nearly every possession he had.
Nine of the bodies were so badly burned that DNA tests will need to be done.
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Related: Chile Con Current
Amazing how quickly that earthquake coverage evaporated.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Chile leader to relocate Valparaiso fire victims" by Eva Vergara | Associated Press April 16, 2014
VALPARAISO, Chile — President Michelle Bachelet vowed Tuesday to reconstruct this once-beautiful port city according to a master plan that would prevent many of the 11,000 victims of devastating wildfires from rebuilding on hills that cannot be protected from disasters.
The fires, which started Saturday and leaped from hilltop to densely populated hilltop, have been contained but not extinguished. Stiff winds threaten to lift the embers, putting still more neighborhoods at risk. The fires already have consumed as many as 3,000 homes and killed 15 people while injuring hundreds more.
‘‘We think this is a tremendous tragedy, but . . . it is also a tremendous opportunity to do things right,’’ Bachelet said in an interview with El Diario de Cooperativa. ‘‘What we’re looking at in terms of reconstruction is how to rebuild in a more orderly manner, better and more worthy’’ of Valparaiso’s status as a World Heritage City.
Leaders send chills up my spine when they say that because the same was spouted after 9/11. When leaders talk about turning tragedies into opportunities the antenna should go up.
UNESCO granted the city that honor in large part because of its unique architecture, laid out on narrow, curving streets that climb hills so steep many people commute by climbing stairways or riding cable cars. Brightly painted, improvised wooden houses hug forested hills and ravines, which form a natural amphitheater around Chile’s second-largest port.
The city has been plagued throughout history by wildfires that can spread quickly when the wind blows out to sea. Indigenous Changos who lived there before the Spanish conquest called the area ‘‘Alimapu,’’ which means ‘‘land overtaken by fire,’’ said Orion Aramayo, an urban planning specialist at Valparaiso’s Catholic University.
While some victims were middle-class families, thousands more lived in primitive conditions, sharing structures built on tiny ledges carved into the hills. Many homes were built illegally, lacking water and sewer connections, with improper foundations on dangerous slopes. Often, there is no way for emergency vehicles to reach them.
With so many houses reduced to rubble and nearly 4.5 square miles of the compact city’s forests turned to ash, Chileans were debating about whether bulldozers might help solve longstanding problems.
Between the illegal homes and bulldozers I'm thinking Palestine, although I suppose it should be Brazil.
Urban planners called for safer structures, wider streets, and better infrastructure. Some cultural representatives expressed concerns that new construction could endanger the city’s rich character.
Thousands of fire victims have returned to the hills, even to charred places on denuded slopes that could turn into landslides in the next rain.
Many experts blame the Chilean state for decades of uncontrolled growth. ‘‘The government is responsible for having allowed homes to be built in dangerous areas, and somehow it has to show these people that they’re in a place where their lives are at risk,’’ said architecture professor Jonas Figueroa at the University of Santiago.
He sounds "conspiratorial."
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