Above: the red dots represent heat at fires in Chile and Argentina detected by a satellite January 21, 2017. NASA photo.

As Chile experiences its largest siege of wildfires in a decade the President has taken steps to enable the military to assist firefighters. Many fires are burning near the capital, Santiago, and within 200 miles south of the city.

More than a dozen blazes have burned almost 50,000 hectares (123,000 acres). Reuters reported that the largest has consumed 24,000 hectares (59,000 acres) 87 miles south of Santiago.

The video below is from CHV News. It is in Spanish, but has several minutes of video of the fires. Google translated the title and description: “37 fire assets affect the south central zone of Chile – CHV NEWS -President Bachelet announced this day that international aid was requested, as the outbreaks do not provide.”