Firefighters battled dozens of forest fires in central Chile on Saturday, with the blazes having left at least 64 people dead.

President Gabriel Boric has declared a state of emergency in central and southern Chile "due to catastrophe," with temperatures soaring to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) and unusually dry conditions.

More than 1,000 homes were destroyed, according to the government. Boric warned the death toll is likely to rise. 

"Given the conditions of the tragedy, the number of victims is sure to increase over the next few hours," Boric said. "The situation is really very difficult."

Boric wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that more military units had been deployed to tackle the fires and that citizens should cooperate with emergency teams.

He also offered his condolences to the families of those who died in the fires.

Expansive fires in central Chile

The deadliest fires were in the central region of Valparaiso, home to more than a million people. Areas around the central coastal tourist city of Vina del Mar were also badly affected, and rescue teams were struggling to reach all the hard-hit areas, Chilean authorities said.

There were 92 fires burning in the center and south of the country, where temperatures have been unusually high this week, Interior Minister Carolina Toha said.

More than 43,000 hectares of land were affected by the fires, Toha said, adding: "The area with fires today is much smaller than last year (but) at this time the number of hectares affected is multiplying very rapidly."

Wildfires afflict Chile every year. A scorching heat wave and dozens of wildfires last year killed some 27 people and destroyed thousands of acres of forest. 

rm/sri (Reuters, AP)