Wildfires raging across central and southern Chile have killed at least 18 people, scorched thousands of hectares of forest, and destroyed scores of homes, authorities said, as the South American country swelters under a heatwave, The Guardian reports.

Chile’s president, Gabriel Boric, declared a state of catastrophe in the country’s central Biobío region and the neighboring Nuble region, about 500km (300 miles) south of Santiago, the capital.

The emergency designation allows greater coordination with the military to rein in two dozen wildfires that have so far blazed through 8,500 hectares (21,000 acres) and prompted 50,000 people to evacuate, according to the Chilean security minister, Luis Cordero.