I saw the smoke beyond the city around 2:30 pm, and it looked pretty small. Noticeable, but it looked manageable. I didn't really think much of it until a few hours later when the smoke from the fire had reached and covered most of downtown Valparaíso, and the fire trucks, brigades (at least one bus full of people) and army trucks were driving through the city. All of the bomberos are volunteers in Chile.
Alerta Roja
Before we realized the severity of the situation, Alicia and I casually wondered how they got fire trucks up the steep, narrow, winding streets in the hills of Valpo.
We weren't far off. That is actually part of what makes containing fires in Valpo very difficult. That, the amount of garbage in the streets and the strong winds from the Pacific help fires spread quickly. This one happened to be one of the worst in the city's history.
By the time we got back to Recreo, the smoke had spread across the sky and the flames had spread to the city and were visible from Viña. The president had declared a zona de catástrofe Valparaíso, and called upon the military to help manage an evacuation and fight the fire. I'm not sure at what point the 14 helicopters or 6 planes arrived, but the fire is contained at this point.
11 people have died. 500 houses have been lost, and 10,000 people have been evacuated. The people of Valpo should have potable water by tomorrow.
And, just as an FYI, the winds seem to be blowing south. Although I am close to Valparaíso, I am not afected by the flames, the smoke, or the need to relocate.
Also, as an FYI, I have been watching CNN and 24 Horas as a way to listen to Spanish for the last few weeks. The thing about 24-hour news channels is that they say the same things over and over and over again. This is great for language learning (and annoying for just about everything else).
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