At least one hundred homes burned, and 400 people were homeless on Monday after a fire exploded in a slum in the city of Iquique, northern Chile.

The fire spread quickly in the poverty-stricken slum, jumping from house to house due to the narrow streets. Many of the destroyed homes were built in an irregular urban design, which made it difficult for firefighters to control the blaze. The shanty town¡¯s water supply was stopped, and authorities set up shelters for the 280 families affected by the fire.

Firefighters had to get to the neighborhood on foot, slowing their efforts to reduce the damage. An authority for the Tamarugal province said that firefighters had extinguished the fire on Monday night.

Difficult words: slum (an overcrowded urban area inhabited by very poor people), poverty-stricken (the situation of being very poor), shanty (poorly made).