‘A tornado of fire’: How El Niño sparked Chile’s worst firestorm

The Valparaíso region of Chile is wealthy and densely populated, but last Friday there was little to warn residents living in the green hills and valleys that a firestorm packing the power of several hydrogen bombs was to hit.   

Fabiola Camilla, a 31-year-old mother of two, watched her seven-year-old daughter playing at her birthday party. She recalled nothing out of the ordinary, other than the warm, dry weather the currents of El Niño had brought to an area known locally as the Jewel of the Pacific. 

There was also a fierce wind, said Misael Vergara Tapia, a resident of the neighbouring village of Achupallas. “A hot wind … a wind we had never felt before.”

From this idyll erupted hell. Moments later, fire was leaping from house to house, setting entire neighbourhoods ablaze and threatening the lives of thousands. “It was like a tornado of fire,” said Misael, 67. “In five minutes, you couldn’t see more than half a metre in front of you. Everyone was shouting, calling for their family. People died on the streets, in their cars.”

The wildfire is the worst disaster to hit Chile for more than a decade. At least 131 people have died, with a further 370 still missing. The hillside neighbourhoods it ripped through, destroying more 15,000 homes, are now a scorched wasteland of broken cement and steel. 

Misael searched throughout the night of the fire for his brother. “I was turning over the bodies to see if I knew them. I saw children who had died hugging each other. Later, animals were eating the bodies,” he said. “We didn’t find my brother Patricio until the next day. The roof had collapsed and he had become trapped inside. We found him hugging his dog.”

Firestorms of this magnitude are a terrifying phenomenon, moving so fast and with such energy that they can kill people hundreds of metres away through radiant heat alone. But it is not unique.

Hawaii, California, France, Portugal, Canada, Greece and Australia have all been hit in recent years. In July 2022, when temperatures reached 40C for the first time in the UK, the residents of Wennington in east London witnessed nearly 20 houses burn down in a matter of minutes. The spark was a compost heap that had spontaneously combusted.

Experts are now asking: What’s causing these infernos? And is there anything that can be done to stop them?

Chile’s forest fire, like most, was preceded by unusually high temperatures, low humidity, and strong winds.

The blaze started at midday in forested mountainous areas, and by the afternoon had swept northwards into the city of Viña del Mar, home to 330,000 people, and the smaller urban areas of Quilpué, Limache, and Villa Alemana.

Locals say they received no official warnings or alerts, or that they came too late. Chile’s national disaster response service said alerts were sent but that they did not order people to evacuate. By 5.30pm, the fires were igniting people’s homes.

“The electricity went off and alarms started ringing,” recalled Fabiola. “We started to see smoke and ashes were falling everywhere. It happened in minutes.”

Viviana Mateluna, 44, lived next to a bus station. “All the buses began exploding and the electricity cables. We thought we were being bombed,” she said. 

The hills are characterised by narrow roads and cul-de-sacs, and have few exits. As people jumped into their cars to escape, deadly traffic jams quickly formed. Firefighters couldn’t get in, while the valleys magnified the winds, fanning the storm.  

“Our home is in a dip and we didn’t have time to leave. We were trapped in,” said Fabiola. “The flames were coming. It was all black, we were like blind people.”

Some did not want to leave, choosing to stay and protect their homes with buckets of water. Many were also elderly, unable to move quickly on foot.

“My fiancé’s grandfather Osmán didn’t want to leave, and my fiancé was trying to convince him,” said Nicolás Carrallo Gontález, aged 24. “But our five-month-old daughter was struggling to breathe, she lost consciousness … I picked her up, wrapped her in a blanket, and ran.”

Dozens of people were found incinerated in the streets, in their homes, and in their cars.

Nicolás returned to find his fiancé’s grandfather, Osmán, dead on the stairs outside his home. “We never saw the body of his wife, but the authorities said they found her trapped by some cars,” he said.

“There was a lot of death here. My neighbour lost two children, they were seven and five, and her father,” said Fabiola.

Wildfires have become three times as common in Chile in recent years, according to a recent report in Nature.

Officials say some are started intentionally and that extreme weather conditions – “fire weather” – are responsible for their rapid spread. 

“Fires are increasing due to the combination of El Niño and global warming,” said Dr Raúl Cordero, climate professor at the University of Groningen and the University of Santiago. 

“The years where fires are more frequent are the years of El Niño. The effects of global warming on the weather cannot be ignored anymore.”

Dr Cordero says that the main anomaly on the day of last week’s inferno was the extreme temperatures. “In the epicentre, on Friday and Saturday, it was 36 degrees  – a likely all-time record for this city,” he said. 

Valparaíso’s mountainous terrain also drives the winds, with speeds last Friday exceeding 40 km per hour. 

“These ravines accelerate the wind,” said Marcelo Ruiz, an urban planning expert who lives in the Valparaíso region. “They function as a chimney, reducing the space in which the wind can move.” 

Large forests – which are dominated by non-native and highly flammable trees – have also been planted nearby for logging and paper production, and quickly became engulfed.

Chile has invested heavily in its fire service in recent years but – as other countries have also found – it is not enough.

“It’s impossible to stop fires while the weather conditions are increasing,” Dr Cordero said. “California, where resources are not a problem, has been unable to stop the fires. Canada, where resources are not a problem, has been unable to stop the fires.”

What can be done, he said, is improving urban planning for the new age of fire weather and the emergency response.

Mr Ruiz agreed: “When people were trying to escape, all the exits were blocked with cars trying to escape. The neighbourhoods were traps.

“We need to build roads and fire departments in the borders of the neighbourhoods, we can’t expect private developments to do this.”

Little remains of Valparaíso’s scorched neighbourhoods.

Thousands are living in tents or under tarpaulin. Chilean flags mark former homes, and lists of names and ages of occupants hang on surviving gates. For those searching for relatives there are lists of the missing and the known dead.

Standing on the foundations of her former home, Ruth González Jara, 65, said she is astounded by the support of Chilean people.

Ruth’s home of 30 years has been decimated. All that remains of her dog, Toribio, is his teeth and a burnt paw, while the cages of her eight yellow canaries melted together. 

“People from Santiago [the capital] come every day to help us. They are anonymous people, they are strangers. They don’t know us but they come every day to help,” she said.

Chile is a high-income country, with the highest GDP per capita in Latin America. 

Nonetheless, on Thursday president Gabriel Boric called for financial support and announced a national reconstruction fund. “Reconstruction won’t be easy. We are going to need a lot of economic help,” he said. “The state is going to put everything it has into it, but cooperation – from Chile or abroad – is welcome.”

But for now, and for many, the priority is to find and identify the dead. 

Families wait desperately at the forensic medical service for news and to give their DNA. Every thirty minutes, someone comes to collect a body.

Rafael Gallard, from El Olivar, arrived on Thursday afternoon to collect his father’s remains. 

“I ran to find my daughter and left my car at home. My father went to find me; we crossed paths,” he said, his voice cracking. “He saw my car, thought I was inside the house and went inside to get me. Then he couldn’t escape and burnt. 

“He gave his life trying to save me.”

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