{"id":322833,"date":"2026-01-22T15:11:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T07:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=322833"},"modified":"2026-01-22T15:11:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T07:11:22","slug":"chile-police-arrest-suspect-over-deadly-wildfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=322833","title":{"rendered":"Chile police arrest suspect over deadly wildfires"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A
A firefighter stands amid a burning forest during efforts to extinguish a wildfire in the Biobio region<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

LIRQUEN (Chile), Jan 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Police in south-central Chile have arrested a man on suspicion of starting one of the recent wildfires that killed 20 people and razed entire neighborhoods, the government said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Security Minister Luis Cordero said the suspect used a liquid accelerant to start fires in a wheat field, with authorities seizing five litres (more than a gallon) of fuel from him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was arrested at dawn in the town of Perquenco in Araucania region, south of Biobio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fires began simultaneously on Saturday in various parts of Biobio and Nuble regions, about 500 kilometres south of the capital Santiago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fanned by strong winds and high temperatures, the flames quickly ripped through the coastal towns of Penco, Lirquen and Punta de Parra, leaving a blackened landscape of smoldering ruins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around 1,000 homes went up in smoke, affecting around 7,500 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other fires were later reported further inland, in the Biobio town of Florida, about 40 kilometres east of the city of Concepcion and in Araucania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cordero said substances used to start fires, including plastic containers containing accelerant, were found in Concepcion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firefighters were still battling 35 blazes Wednesday — 22 in Biobio, five in Nuble and eight in Araucania, according to national forestry officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A drop in temperature in recent days has helped ease the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We managed to reduce the intensity of the fire,” Carlos Zulieta, a firefighter in Florida told AFP, adding that it was now advancing “more slowly.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government said it would pay compensation of US$700 to US$1,500 to victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aid began trickling into affected areas on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Municipal workers and private companies were delivering portable toilets and generators to Lirquen, where some families are camped out in the ruins of their homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February 2024, wildfires broke out around the coastal resort of Vina del Mar, 110 kilometers from Santiago, leaving 138 dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investigations revealed that firefighters and forestry brigade members started the fire, which spread rapidly due in part to high temperatures during the southern hemisphere’s summer. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LIRQUEN (Chile), Jan 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Police in south-central Chile have arrested a man on suspicion of starting one of the recent wildfires that killed 20 people and razed entire neighborhoods, the government said. Security Minister Luis Cordero said the suspect used a liquid accelerant to start fires in a wheat field, with authorities seizing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322833"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=322833"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322834,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322833\/revisions\/322834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=322833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=322833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=322833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}