Chilean President Gabriel Boric declared a state of emergency on Sunday for two regions in southern Chile as fast-moving wildfires forced the evacuation of roughly 20,000 residents.
The declaration applies to the Ñuble and Biobío regions, where firefighters are battling the most severe of 19 active fires burning across the country. Twelve of those blazes are concentrated in the two affected regions, located south of the capital, Santiago.
Boric announced the move in a post on X, saying the fires posed a serious and ongoing threat and that all available state resources were being mobilized to respond.
WATCH: The Catholic Church of Lirquén is destroyed as a massive wildfire tears through Penco, Concepción, Chile. pic.twitter.com/bZ3Ca951Jb
— Resist Times (@ResistTimes_US) January 18, 2026
Authorities have not yet confirmed whether there have been any fatalities or provided details on the number of homes damaged or destroyed.
Alicia Cebrián, head of Chile’s National Service for Disaster Prevention and Response, told local media that evacuations have primarily taken place in the Biobío coastal cities of Penco and Lirquén, which together are home to about 60,000 people.
Television footage showed intense flames approaching residential areas, with burned-out vehicles visible on city streets as smoke blanketed neighborhoods.
Chile has faced increasingly destructive wildfire seasons in recent years, particularly in the south-central part of the country. In February 2024, a series of major fires near Viña del Mar, northwest of Santiago, killed 138 people, according to prosecutors, and affected around 16,000 residents.
Officials have warned that extreme heat, drought conditions and strong winds continue to heighten the risk of large-scale fires nationwide.
