Chile has declared a state of emergency after a wildfire has left over two hundred homes destroyed and one person dead.
A fire broke out at the Ventanas port on Thursday, and a separate forest fire to the south near the coastal resort town of Vina del Mar has killed at least one person and destroyed more than 100 homes.
That fire has consumed 272 acres (110 hectares) so far, the official said, as firefighters struggled to contain it.
Several neighbourhoods have been evacuated, with varying levels of home damage reported.
The government also declared a state of emergency in the Viña del Mar area on Thursday night.
Officials had previously said that the fire near Vina del Mar, a popular tourist destination about 120 kilometres (75 miles) from the capital of Santiago, had killed two people and damaged or destroyed 400 homes.
By early Friday, Monsalve had revised the number downward, saying that one person had been killed, 30 slightly injured and 130 houses destroyed, according to the AFP. Reuters has put the number of houses destroyed at 200.
Firefighters have struggled to contain the blazes, but Manuel Monsalve, the assistant to Chile’s interior minister, said on Friday that “the forecast is to be able to control the fire during the day”.
Codelco’s smelter near the Ventanas port was already shut down due to maintenance, while the refinery is operating normally, according to Codelco, the world’s top copper producer.
