Chilean firefighters yesterday tried to contain a massive wildfire that has ravaged tens of thousands of acres of pristine Patagonia and forced authorities to close a popular national park.
Nearly four per cent of the total park has been destroyed
High winds fanned the blaze at the Torres del Paine National Park, a 2,400-square-kilometre paradise of mountains, glaciers, natural forests and lakes in deep southern Chile visited by more than 100,000 people each year.
After meeting emergency officials struggling to get a grip on the inferno, President Sebastian Pinera announced that the park would remain shut throughout January.
Some 27,200 acres of woodland and scrub, nearly four per cent of the total area of the park, has already been destroyed by the blaze, which more than quadrupled in size in less than 24 hours.
The Chilean government has deployed four planes and a helicopter to the remote mountainous region, where 300 firefighters, soldiers and forest rangers were engaged in a desperate effort to get the inferno under control.
Aerial photographs showed a vast cloud of smoke obscuring the beautiful backdrop of snow-clad granite peaks, wild steppes and turquoise lakes.
“We are faced with a hugely complex situation, an extreme scenario, mainly due to topography, strong winds and highly combustible vegetation,” said Vicente Nunez, head of Chile’s Office of National Emergency (ONEMI).
Ten to 15 mm of rain were expected yesterday.
The US State Department earlier Friday alerted US citizens in an advisory to the ongoing forest fires and urged them to avoid heading to the region.
The blaze erupted late on Tuesday and advanced rapidly in dry conditions, forcing authorities to evacuate 700 people, mostly tourists, from the park, which is located some 3,000 km south of Santiago.
Environmentalist group Accion Ecologica criticised what it said was the government’s slow response to the wildfire, drawing an unfavourable comparison with its rapid crackdown on students protesting education reforms.
“We would have liked to see a government as gifted at throwing water on the flames consuming our natural heritage as they are on citizens defending their rights,” said activist Luis Mariano Rendon.