Fire ravages 5,000 hectares of woodland in Chile national park

Dec 30, 2011, 17:06 GMT

Santiago - Around 5,000 hectares of woodland have been ravaged by a fire that remains out of control in the Chilean Patagonian national park Torres del Paine, Chilean authorities confirmed Friday.

'It is a very worrying situation,' said Vicente Nunez, head of the National Emergency Bureau of Chile's Interior Ministry.

The flames are destroying some 1,500 hectares of forest each day in the park, which is home to the guanaco, the South Andean deer known as huemul and the condor, among other species.

The fire is affecting a remote area of the park, and with wind blowing at up to 100 kilometres an hour it will be difficult to control the flames.

A 120-strong team of Chilean and Argentine firemen and soldiers have been battling the flames, although the government of Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has said that the number will be doubled in the coming hours and that fire helicopters will also be deployed.

Torres del Paine, in Chile's far south, is one of the country's best-known national parks, with its mountains, lakes, steppe landscapes, woods and glaciers.

It usually gets about 120,000 visitors a year, but it has now been closed as the authorities seek to put out the fire.

The park stretches across around 240,000 hectares on the Argentine border, about 300 kilometres from the southern Chilean city of Punta Arenas. It is one of the region's main sources of income.