BY ALEXANDRE PLAZA AND PATRICIA LUNA ASSOCIATED PRESS |Intense forest fires burning around a densely populated area of central Chile have left at least 19 people dead and destroyed about 1,100 homes, officials said Saturday. Chile’s Interior Minister Carolina Tohá said there were currently 92 forest fires burning in the center and south of the country, where temperatures have been unusually high this week. She said that two fires near the towns of Quilpué and Villa Alemana had burnt through at least 8,000 hectares (19,770 acres) since Friday. One of the fires was threatening the coastal resort town of Viña del Mar, where some neighborhoods have already been badly affected. In Villa Independencia, a hillside neighborhood on the eastern edge of town, several blocks of homes and businesses were completely destroyed.
