Viña del Mar (Chile) (AFP) - A Chilean official on Friday said a fast-moving fire that ravaged scores of homes on a forested hillside in Vina del Mar should be controlled by the end of the day, as he provided a revised estimate of its deadly toll.
"The forecast is to be able to control the fire during the day," said Manuel Monsalve, an assistant to the interior minister.
But the light of day revealed a grim panorama of destruction left by the blaze, which broke out Thursday in the seaside town and was fanned by powerful winds.
"We lost everything -- documents, our vehicle," local resident Oscar Gonzalez said, adding that what hurt most was the loss of his dogs.
Officials have given shifting assessments of the fire's toll.
But by mid-day Friday, the authorities said two people had died -- an 85-year-old woman and a 62-year-old man -- while 30 people were injured and 130 houses were destroyed.
Fanned by strong wind gusts, the fire had roared from the upper areas of town down ravines and hills to more heavily inhabited sections of Vina del Mar, 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the capital Santiago.
Monsalve said the blaze has scorched an area of 125 hectares (310 acres).
Several neighborhoods were ordered evacuated.
"The houses were burning one after the other," said 66-year-old Daniel Velazquez."Everything is burned."
President Gabriel Boric's administration declared a state of emergency due to the "public calamity," Monsalve announced earlier.
"There was a very quick response to the beginning of the fire but...it spread very aggressively and quickly," he said.
Wind gusts of 40 to 50 kilometers per hour fanned the flames, complicating work for the more than 400 firefighters and 150 forest rangers called to battle it.
Boric sought to reassure those affected, tweeting, "We will not leave you."
Weary, teary-eyed residents were sifting through smoking debris on Friday looking for anything salvageable.
"We had to go out with just what we were wearing," resident Evelyn Arancibia told AFP.
"It was hell."
