Fire destroys 2,000 homes

VALPARAISO, Chile – A raging fire leaped from hilltop to hilltop in this colorful Chilean port city and stubbornly burned out of control in places more than 24 hours later, killing 12 people and destroying at least 2,000 homes. More than 10,000 people were evacuated, including more than 200 female inmates at a prison.

With hot dry winds stoking the embers, some of the fires that authorities had declared contained broke out again as a second night fell.

The blaze began Saturday afternoon in a forested ravine next to ramshackle housing on one of Valparaiso’s 42 hilltops, and spread quickly as hot ash rained down over wooden houses and narrow streets that lack municipal water systems. Electricity failed as the fire grew, with towering flames turning the night sky orange over a darkening, destroyed horizon.

Eventually, neighborhoods on six hilltops were reduced to ashes, including one hill several blocks from Chile’s parliament building. Flames later 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 20 helicopters and planes dropped water on hotspots.

The fire destroyed at least 2,000 houses by Sunday evening, and the death toll rose to 12, Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo said. Authorities warned that the toll could rise once the fires cool enough for them to search for bodies. More than 500 people were treated at hospitals, mostly for smoke inhalation.