Given the large forest fire that has been raging since yesterday in the coastal town of Viña del Mar, in the Valparaíso region, the Chilean government decreed on Friday the constitutional emergency state of catastrophe due to public calamity.
The Undersecretary of the Interior, Manuel Monsalve, told the press that the state of catastrophe implies the appointment of “a head of National Defense who will have the power to limit constitutional rights, possibly the right of assembly and movement, but who will also have the power to take control, to requisition all the necessary goods to be able to respond to the emergency.”
According to Monsalve, the fire with three active outbreaks, all of them forestry in nature, has left two people dead, 135 houses burned and 110 hectares destroyed. The official also reported that so far, there are 30 people injured as a result of the fire in Viña del Mar.
“There was a very quick response to the start of this fire, but despite this, due to the location of this fire, the weather conditions, the wind and the presence of combustible material, it spread very aggressively and quickly,” Monsalve said.
Source : teleSUR
