The blazes began over a week ago and spread quickly in the dry and particularly hot summer that many South American countries are experiencing. President Michelle Bachelet called them the worst forest catastrophe in the history of state.

As of January 25, about 85 fires was recorded in Chile, over 30 of which are out of control.

Last week, a state of emergency has been declared in a vast area south of the capital, Santiago.The help in taming the raging fire element for the local firefighters was provided by their colleagues from the USA, France, Peru and Mexico.

When extinguishing fires the special equipment is using. The rescue services are struggling to cope the forest fires by applying, for example, the American Boeing 747-400 Super Tanker.

The employees of the National Forestry Corporation of Chile are trying to understand the causes of the fire, as well as find a way to complete elimination of the fiery crash. They study the forest fires on the outskirts of Santiago and engage in their extinguishing.

The fire element went through many Chilean cities. It also didn't spare the city of Santa Olga in Maule.

Residents of Santa Olga, as well as citizens of Penco,Concepción province, involuntarily and urgently are leaving their homes, using bandages to hide their faces from acrid smoke, they go away from the fires.

In the photo: a huge wave of the fire is coming to people's homes from the forest. It seems that the fire tsunami is swallowing up everything in its path.

The unprecedented fire leaves impressive ashes behind. The rare houses that survived intact look like a miracle among mountains of ash. Destructions, produced by the fire element, are enormous.