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Wildfires in Chile kill at least 15 people, force more than 50,000 to evacuate

/ CBS/AFP

Wildfires burning out of control in southern Chile have killed at least 15 people and forced more than 50,000 to evacuate, the government said Sunday.

Security Minister Luis Cordero gave the tolls for 14 blazes burning for two days now in the Nuble and Biobio regions about 300 miles south of Santiago.

President Gabriel Boric declared a state of emergency as nearly 4,000 firefighters battled flames fueled by gusting winds and hot weather in the southern hemisphere summer. Temperatures were expected to reach up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the region on Sunday and Monday, the Reuters news agency reported.

"We face a complicated situation," Interior Minister Alvaro Elizalde said.

The president announced the state of emergency in Nuble and Biobio in a .

"All resources are available," Boric wrote.

APTOPIX Chile Wildfires
A member of the Gonzalez family pets his dog after the family's home caught fire during wildfires in Lirquen, Chile, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. Javier Torres / AP

According to Chile's CONAF forestry agency, more than 20 forest fires were being fought across the country as of Sunday.

"That is why a call is being made to everyone to, above all, avoid traveling through the areas where emergency teams are working," the .

Among other things, the declaration means the armed forces will now get involved.

Alicia Cebrian, the director of the National Service for Disaster Prevention and Response, said most of the evacuations were in the Biobio towns of Penco and Lirquen, which have a combined population of around 60,000 people.

Matias Cid, a 25-year-old student who lives in Penco, described fast-moving flames burning through the night and devouring homes.

"We had to leave with the shirts on our back. If we had stayed another 20 minutes we would have burned to death," Cid told AFP.

All but one of the fatalities so far were in Penco, its mayor Rodrigo Vera said.

Lirquen, a small port town, was also hit hard, with many people saving themselves by rushing to the beach, said resident Alejandro Arredondo, 57.

"There is nothing left standing," he said as he surveyed a burning landscape of metal and wood that used to be people's homes.

Forest fires in Chile leave more than 10,000 hectares consumed
A view of several burned-out cars after a wildfire in the municipality of Penco, Chile, on January 18, 2026.  Lucas Aguayo Araos/Anadolu via Getty Images

The weather forecast Sunday was bad for firefighters -- high temperatures and strong winds, said Esteban Krause, the head of a forest preservation agency in Biobio.

Wildfires have severely impacted south-central Chile in recent years.

In February 2024, several fires broke out simultaneously near the city of Vina del Mar, northwest of Santiago, resulting in 138 deaths, according to the public prosecutor's office.

About 16,000 people were affected by those fires, authorities said.

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© 2026 91³Ô¹ÏÍø. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.

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