The center of Viña del Mar, Chile's quintessential tourist destination, appears deserted at six in the evening on a summer day. The curfew decreed by the government of Gabriel Boric in one of the areas most affected by the deadliest fires of the last decade – there have been 112 deaths, according to the latest report – kept visitors and shopkeepers at home. At night, only a few homeless people can be seen, but mainly police cars are seen guarding the compliance with the travel restrictions to facilitate aid and prevent new fire outbreaks.

In the hills of the so-called "garden city," the situation is different. Residents of Villa Rukan, Villa Dulce, or Palto Miraflores organize themselves in the streets to prevent looting or land seizures, and the fear of new fire outbreaks persists, as the suspicion that the forest fires were intentional, as authorities have indicated, has not dissipated. The tragedy, as Boric has stated, is the largest that Chile has experienced since the great earthquake of February 27, 2010, which left hundreds of victims from the earthquake and a tsunami. "I say this so that we are capable of understanding the pain and magnitude of what we are experiencing," he pointed out. Therefore, he has declared two days of national mourning starting this Monday.

About 40 kilometers south of Viña del Mar, the smoke and the smell of burnt earth sting the eyes and dry the throat. The remnants of the voracious forest fire at the height of Peñuelas, where some small, apparently controlled fires can still be observed due to improved weather conditions, mark the entrance to the Valparaíso region, located about 120 kilometers from Santiago. The affected people demand the presence of the military, who, by order of President Boric, have been deployed in the most affected areas, but many have not seen them yet. They anxiously await the third night since the flames razed thousands of homes and forest hectares.

Boric, who visited the region on Sunday, announced that only the Legal Medical Service (SML) – the State agency in charge of identifications – will report on the number of deceased. Chile awaits each of the reports with pain, which has been increasing the number of victims throughout the day: if shortly before 2:00 p.m. there were 64 fatalities, nine hours later, at 11:00 p.m., it was raised to 112 deceased.

From the region of the disaster, the Deputy Minister of the Interior, Manuel Monsalve, has been in charge of reporting the 112 fatalities, of which only 32 have been identified, and 38 autopsies have been performed by the SML, which has been reinforced with forensic doctors from across the country in response to the emergency. In addition, there are 10 bodies ready to be handed over to their families. Faced with the tragedy, Boric announced in the afternoon that the number of fatalities "will increase significantly," and he did so to prepare society for the worst.