LEAD: Suspect arrested as chile national park fire ravages woodland

Dec 31, 2011, 18:28 GMT

Santiago - A fire ravaging a national park in southern Chile has grown to engulf an area of 11,000 hectares, Interior Minster Rodrigo Hinzpeter said Saturday.

At least three of six of the fire fronts could possibly be brought under control this weekend, he added.

Meanwhile, a 23-year-old Israeli tourist was arrested over suspicions of causing the blaze through negligent arson, state prosecutor Juan Melendez told broadcaster Radio Cooperativa.

The natural landscape of the Torres del Paine national park in Chile's Patagonia region would take 30 to 50 years to recover, said Environment Minister Maria Ignacia Benitez, quoted in the La Tercera newspaper.

President Sebastian Pinera has declared the region a disaster area and has requested assistance from Argentina, Australia and the United States in battling the fire.

The number of workers tasked with putting out the fire has grown substantially, up to 600 from 120 on Friday.

The fire was first reported Tuesday in the area around Lake Grey. Winds have hindered efforts to put out the flames.

Torres del Paine is one of the country's best-known national parks, with its mountains, lakes, steppe landscapes, woods and glaciers. It is home to the guanaco, the South Andean deer known as huemul and the condor, among other species.

The park stretches across 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.