About 30,000 hectares of forest and pastureland have been devastated by fires in different regions of Chile, authorities said on Friday.

Catalina Bau, executive director of the Chilean National Forest Corporation (Conaf), said that the losses caused by the fires reached 40 million U.S. dollars.

Bau said on Thursday night that firefighters had controlled the fires in "La Campana" in Maule region.

"We hope to control the fires in the regions of Valparaiso, Maule and Bio Bio. We are concerned about the high temperature, but fortunately, the houses are not at risk," Bau said.

Currently, about 1,500 agents of the Conaf and more than 1,200 Chilean soldiers are fighting fires in different regions of the country.

According to the Conaf, this season has seen more fires in the central zone of Chile. So it urged the people to take precautionary measures against fires during their vacations.