A fire tonight affected five commercial locals and four residential buildings in Estación Central, Santiago, leaving a man around 50 years old in critical condition with burns over 80% of his body. Seventeen fire companies are working to contain the flames in a key commercial area during the Christmas season. The fire started in a residential commercial local and spread quickly, requiring controlled collapses due to the age of the structures.
The fire broke out after 9 PM on Sunday, December 21, 2025, at the intersection of San Francisco de Borja and 5 de Abril streets, on the west side of the first, near Persa Estación in Estación Central commune, Metropolitan Region. It initially affected a residential house but escalated to a third alarm due to its spread to commercial locals and other cité-type buildings.
CBS Commander Giorgio Tromben explained that 'the fire begins in the commercial local, where it functions as residential number 17 on Borja street, in the residential part, in one of the rooms that worked as a cité.' Seventeen volunteer companies intervened, conducting defensive operations and four controlled collapses, as the old structure was highly compromised. 'We have worked defensively, as the structure is very compromised,' Tromben detailed.
Five locals on the first floor and four on the second, used as cité, were destroyed. The main effort was to contain the fire to prevent spread to the rear cité with 20 houses, which was achieved efficiently. One person, a man rescued from the structure, was transferred to Mutual de Seguridad Alameda with severe burns.
The CBS Fire Investigation Department is probing the causes. For safety, traffic was cut on Alameda with San Francisco de Borja, 5 de Abril with Hermanos Arellano, and the intersections of Obispo Manuel Umaña and Arica with 5 de Abril. The incident occurred in a vital commercial point, especially ahead of Christmas, generating visible smoke columns.
