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The wildfires are believed to have begun in the majestic Torres del Paine National Park last Tuesday, and they broke out in other areas over the weekend. An elderly man who refused to leave one area was the only reported death, but altogether 90 square miles of forest have been destroyed, some 100 homes burned, hundreds of people evacuated, and a plywood plant owned by Arauco, a major lumber producer, ruined.
Still, the fires remain less destructive than some blazes in other countries. For instance, Australia’s bushfires of 2009 claimed more than 170 lives.
The government of Mr. Pi?era rejected accusations that it was slow in responding. Protests demanding changes in transportation, energy and above all education have driven his approval ratings down to 23 percent, the lowest for any Chilean leader since Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship ended in 1990.
Mr. Pi?era said a red alert was declared just two hours after the Torres del Paine fire started on Dec. 27, and measures were quickly taken to combat the blaze. Still, Mr. Pi?era said the fire began in a zone of “very difficult access, with very difficult topography and additionally with conditions of intense winds.”
Neighboring Argentina and Uruguay have contributed to a force of more than 750 firefighters deployed in the country’s south, and Mr. Pi?era said that Chile had the helicopters and aircraft it needed to fight the blazes.
So far, the fires have burned more than 7 percent of Torres del Paine, a tourism draw known for its soaring granite peaks, and areas of two other regions, Bio Bio and Maule. Mr. Pi?era said four of six focal areas in Torres del Paine were coming under control, and that the park could partially reopen by Wednesday.
Fires have whipped through Torres del Paine before. In 2005 a 31-year-old Czech tourist accidentally started a fire in the park that caused more than $5 million in damage. The government of the Czech Republic subsequently issued a letter of apology and offered to send forestry experts to assist in the recuperation.
In the latest fires, an Israeli tourist, Rotem Singer, 23, has been arrested and charged with starting the park blaze. By the account of a prosecutor, Ivan Vidal, people traveling with Mr. Singer said he set fire to toilet paper after going to the bathroom, and then failed to put it out completely. But he strongly denied the accusation, saying his translator may have contributed to misunderstandings.
Yediot Aharonot, a leading Israeli newspaper, said it interviewed Mr. Singer by telephone. It quoted him as saying: “I did not cause the blaze. I have been framed and turned into a scapegoat.”
The newspaper said Mr. Singer was met at court with angry shouts and anti-Semitic curses like “stinking Jew.” He said he feared for his safety. Mr. Singer denied that he had confessed to anything. “I am not guilty of anything, and I don’t know how this story landed on me,” he said.
The Israeli Embassy in Chile said in a statement Monday that it would not take part in the “judicial procedure” involving Mr. Singer. “We understand his family will hire an attorney for his defense,” the embassy said. In the statement, the embassy added that it shared Chileans’ “distress over the environmental damage in Torres del Paine.”
The embassy “trusts the Chilean authorities will determine the circumstances in which it was produced,” the statement said.
Simon Romero reported from Rio de Janeiro, and Pascale Bonnefoy from Santiago, Chile. Isabel Kershner contributed reporting from Jerusalem.
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