A duck drinks water from a plastic swimming pool destroyed in a fire in Santa Juana, Chile, Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023. The fires have spread through southern and central Chile, prompting the evacuation of residential areas and the declaration of a state of emergency in certain regions. . The Chilean government updated on Wednesday, February 22, 2023 the number of animals killed by the fires and raised it to 17,000, which does not include wild animals affected. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

More than 5,000 farmers have been affected by the fires that have ravaged central-southern Chile for nearly three weeks and which, according to the latest report from the authorities on Wednesday, have killed more than 17,000 people.

The Chilean government reported 5,841 farmers affected, “not only in their homes or in their children’s schools, but in the productive activity that sustains them.” 45% of them are peasants and subsistence farmers, who work the land to produce their own food, Interior Minister Carolina Tohá said in the latest official report.

By mid-February, the number of dead animals burned was around 5,000.

The data on 17,000 dead farm animals does not take wildlife into account. There would also be more than 38,000 hives destroyed.

The authority explained that in addition, 5,870 kilometers of fences have disappeared, which is important not only as a good, but “as a security measure, the absence of which has consequences because the animals are left in freedom”. They can go to dangerous places, cross each other, get injured or robbed and this is the reason for a lot of tension in the region.

The government has indicated that it is working to see how it can help all those affected in this regard.

On the last day, 301 active fires were recorded, of which 210 were brought under control, of which 40 are still in combat, which, according to Minister Tohá, is a “much more favorable number” than the previous days. “The fire is less aggressive”, he assured, specifying that “many sources are generated but they can be controlled” before they advance. Several outbreaks have been reactivated in recent days, threatening several populated areas, although they were ultimately not reached by the flames.

In addition to the 25 dead and more than 450,000 hectares consumed, more than 2,100 homes were destroyed and more than 7,000 homeless. Farmers and ranchers in Ñuble, Bio Bio and Araucanía are the most affected. Currently, Bio Bio is the one with the highest number of fires while in the rest they remain more controlled, explained the government.

There are a total of 44 people arrested for possible negligence or intentionality in starting the fires.

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