SANTIAGO: A very wild and uncontrolable fire in the Chilean port city of Valparaiso destoryed 500 homes and forced the evacuation of 3000 people as the conflagration burned into the night.
Huge tongues of fire engulfing one home after another led President Michelle Bachelet to declare the zone a disaster area late Saturday.
Thousands of people, meanwhile, watched from distant vantage points as the hills burned bright red.
A dense column of smoke advanced towards Valparaiso’s port, one of Chile’s largest.
The city of 270,000, whose historic quarter was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2004, draws thousands of foreign and local visitors each year.
The fire, whose cause is still under investigation, led to the suspension of drinking water and power outages in several neighborhoods.
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