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| View of the remains of Santa Olga, 350 kilometers south of Santiago, |
Chile's massive forest fires that have killed 11 people and
destroyed nearly 1,500 homes will cost the government $333 million, Finance
Minister Rodrigo Valdes told reporters on Friday.
The government will reallocate $100 million from the current
budget to mitigate the effects of the fireses, while another $233 million will
be taken out of a rainy day fund that the government maintains for such situations.
"Those are the costs that the state will have to assume
in the preliminary estimate that we're doing," Valdes said. "That
situation can change when we have more information, and it will depend on how
the wildfires evolve."
Valdes said the estimates do not include damages to small
and medium sized producers. The government will not need to issue debt to help
with the aid effort. Experts are calculating the potential impact on economic
growth.
Losses for Chile's private sector have been significant in
some cases. Chile's forestry industry, one of the country's main export
sectors, reported $350 million in losses as of Monday.
According to official figures, the fires have so far
consumed over 580,000 hectares (1,433,000 acres).
Foreign firefighters and specialists from Argentina, Brazil,
Colombia, France, Japan, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Spain, the United
States and Venezuela have teamed up with local rescue teams to fight the 41
active fires.
Forest fires are a regular feature of Chile's hot, arid
summers, but a nearly decade-long drought combined with historically high
temperatures have created tinder-like conditions in the nation's central
regions.
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| A wildfire approaches Chile's Dichato community |
Edited from VOA News
