THE AMERICA ONE NEWS
Jun 5, 2025  |  
0
 | Remer,MN
Sponsor:  QWIKET 
Sponsor:  QWIKET 
Sponsor:  QWIKET: Elevate your fantasy game! Interactive Sports Knowledge.
Sponsor:  QWIKET: Elevate your fantasy game! Interactive Sports Knowledge and Reasoning Support for Fantasy Sports and Betting Enthusiasts.
back  
topic
NYTimes
New York Times
6 Feb 2024
Jack NicasCristóbal Olivares


NextImg:Tragedy, Resilience and a Miracle at Chile’s Burned Botanical Garden

On Friday afternoon, several hundred people were roaming the idyllic grounds of Chile’s national botanical garden, mostly unaware that, just across some hills and a highway, a raging wildfire was galloping toward them.

The danger quickly became clear. Rangers began racing around the park on motorbikes, shouting for visitors to flee to the exits. But by the time many got there, the fire had already arrived.

“Thick black smoke was billowing above us, so we laid down on the grass just inside the gate,” Alejandro Peirano, the park’s director, recalled Monday morning. “One of my rangers turned to me and said, ‘Director, are we going to die?’”

Elsewhere, three other rangers were trying to rescue a colleague, Patricia Araya, 60, a greenhouse keeper who lived in the park and was caring for her two grandsons and 92-year-old mother. They reached her cabin’s gate, but the fire was closing in. “I could feel the heat searing my back. I realized it was burning chunks of bark falling on me,” Freddy Sánchez, 50, said Monday, standing guard at the park entrance.

“We had to turn around,” he said. “All your body wants is to find a way out of the heat.”

Image
The remains of the cottage where Patricia Araya, a greenhouse keeper, perished with her mother and two grandsons.

The crowd that huddled on the front lawn survived — a miracle of sorts, given that 98 percent of the nearly 1,000-acre garden was destroyed.


Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.


Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.