Battle rages against Chile forest fires

Forecasts of persistent high temperatures and strong winds bode ill for drought-stricken Chile as dozens of forest fires -- several of them deadly -- showed no signs of abating.

More than 5,600 local firefighters, with backup from personnel flown in from Mexico, Colombia and Spain, were actively battling 89 priority fires out of a total of 311 burning a week into the disaster, officials said.

"We have an alert for high temperatures for today, tomorrow and the next day in several regions of the country, requiring the mobilisation of a very large effort... to prevent the fires from spreading," Interior Minister Carolina Toha.

Fires have razed more than 309,000 hectares in the Maule, Nuble, Biobio and La Araucania regions, officials say -- an area equivalent to one third of Puerto Rico.  

The official death toll was adjusted downward by two to 24, with the number of people injured by the fires reaching 2,180.

A total of 1,180 homes have been destroyed, leaving more than 5,500 people homeless.

The forest fires that have killed 26 people and left thousands homeless in south-central Chile over the last week. Some 5,600 firefighters, the majority of them volunteers, are actively battling 81 priority blazes out of 301 still burning, according to authorities.

President Gabriel Boric visits those affected by the forest fires. Forecasts of persistent high temperatures and strong winds bode ill for drought-stricken Chile, while dozens of forest fires, many of them fatal, show no signs of abating.