Chile's wildfires expand; foreign help on the way
STORY: Firefighters were battling dozens of raging wildfires in Chile on Sunday (February 5).
It is one of the country’s worst natural disasters in years,
as dozens of people have been killed and nearly 1,000 more injured.
A victim in Santa Juana recalled what happened when the fires hit her home.
"We left the trucks there with my father and stayed here waiting while the fire approached. I desperately told my mother, 'here they (the flames) come'. I grabbed my son, and the neighbours told us to jump in the pool."
International help was set to arrive on Sunday from a handful of countries that have pledged resources, including planes and expert firefighting teams.
Pockets of intense fire could be seen leaping out from forested hills in the Biobio region on Saturday.
Officials said on Sunday that the fires have consumed some 270,000 hectares,
roughly the size of the U.S. state of Rhode Island.
The most intense wildfires torched forests and farmland clustered around three regions near the middle of the country's long Pacific coastline.
President Gabriel Boric issued emergency declarations for the largely rural southern regions of Biobio, Nuble and Araucania in an effort to speed up relief.
A searing heat wave in the Southern Hemisphere's summer has complicated efforts to extinguish the flames, as temperatures in some of the most affected areas have exceeded 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
Nearly 1,500 people have fled to shelters.
Chilean officials have sought international assistance to battle the fires, with new ones sparking to life each day.
Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Spain and Venezuela are all helping in the effort.
