Wildfires burn at sunrise near Lirquen, Chile, on January 18, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP
Wildfires raging in southern Chile have killed at least 15 people and forced more than 50,000 to evacuate, the government said Sunday (January 18, 2026).
Security Minister Luis Cordero gave the tolls for the blazes burning for two days now in the Nuble and Biobio regions about 500 kilometers (300 miles) south of Santiago.
President Gabriel Boric earlier declared a state of emergency as crews battled flames fueled by gusting winds and hot weather in the southern hemisphere summer.
Nearly two dozen blazes are burning across the country, many of them in Nuble and Biobio.
“We face a complicated situation,” Interior Minister Alvaro Elizalde said.
The President announced the state of emergency in Nuble and Biobio in a post on the social media platform X.
“All resources are available,” Mr. Boric wrote. Among other things the declaration means the armed forces will now get involved.
Alicia Cebrian, the director of the National Service for Disaster Prevention and Response, said most of the evacuations were in the Biobio cities of Penco and Lirquen, which have a combined population of around 60,000 people.
Images broadcast by local television showed the flames in both cities, with charred cars in the streets.
Wildfires have severely impacted south-central Chile in recent years.
In February 2024, several fires broke out simultaneously near the city of Vina del Mar, northwest of Santiago, resulting in 138 deaths, according to the public prosecutor’s office.
About 16,000 people were affected by those fires, authorities said.
Published – January 18, 2026 09:59 pm IST
