Chile is burning and now Chiloé – the heart of the country’s salmon farming industry – has been put on red alert.
Some of the hottest weather in recorded history has been recorded in South America. A C-295 MPA maritime patrol aircraft belonging to the Chilean military is guiding one of 10 Tanker Air Carrier’s DC-10 very large air tankers to put out fires in the country, reports Aqua.cl
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Temperatures earlier this week were much higher than normal in parts of Argentina and Chile. Chiloé was put on red alert on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera declared a state of catastrophe in some regions of the country due to unusually hot weather and numerous wildfires.
He said that he will be seeking “extreme measure to strengthen the network of logistical support to deal with these disasters” and that “more than 19,000 acres of forests and pastures have already been burned by flames, dozens of homes have been destroyed and hundreds of people evacuated, according to reports from the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF) and the National Emergency Office of the Ministry of the Interior (ONEMI).”
En estos momentos #TenTanker.1 carga agua y combustible en aeropuerto Carriel Sur, Concepción, para combatir los incendios forestales de la Región del Biobío. #ChileLoProtegemosTodos pic.twitter.com/GCLJnFSY4e
— CONAF (@conaf_minagri) February 14, 2019
It’s not yet clear if any salmon processing plants or any trade routes have been affected.
