Members of Calgary’s Chilean community are coming together to raise critical funds for the victims of a devastating wildfire that’s claimed the lives of more than 130 people in the country’s Valparaíso region and left hundreds more missing.
The news is especially devastating for Calgarians like Mony Villalobos who waited more than two days to hear back from her cousin who sent her a video of their destroyed home.
In the video, her cousin Maria Puntarelli can be heard speaking Spanish while looking heartbroken at four exterior brick walls left standing amongst the ruins of her home without its roof along the coastal hills of Chile.
“She told me that she suddenly heard sirens, she woke up her family, her two girls and husband to go outside and that’s when they noticed ashes falling from the sky,” Villalobos said.
“I just can’t even imagine what the people of Chile are …