(Bloomberg) -- Wildfires raging across central Chile burned the rural town of Santa Olga last night as temperatures hit record highs and authorities struggled to cope in a country accustomed to natural disasters.
The fires destroyed as many as 1,000 homes late yesterday in Santa Olga, 260 kilometers to the south of Santiago, according to Carlos Valenzuela, the mayor of the neighboring city of Constitucion. The blazes have now cost the lives of seven firefighters, police and local citizens.
“Thousands of people have lost their homes,” Valenzuela told Radio Cooperativa. “There are areas that have been completely abandoned and handed over to the fire. Unfortunately, they are being razed to the ground.”
|$170M agricultural loss already
Since coming to power in March 2014, President Michelle Bachelet has had to deal with a series of natural disasters, including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods and fires. The latest disaster has already cost the agricultural sector alone $170 million, according to estimates by Colliers International. Finance Minister Rodrigo Valdes told reporters Monday that the government could deal with the current fires without extra borrowing. Since then though, the devastation has worsened.
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