SANTIAGO, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Chile has reported that 16,100 hectares of land are being affected by this year's wildfire season, which began at the end of November with the arrival of higher temperatures, the Minister of Agriculture, Antonio Walker, said Monday.

This represents an increase of 245 percent compared to 2018, Walker added.

The minister said the number of fires set intentionally has also risen. "We have proposed pursuing and finding the people who set the fires intentionally. We're going to pursue them with the full force of the law, because what we have seen in Valparaiso is truly dramatic and we don not want this to happen again in Chile."

According to the executive director of the National Forest Corporation (Conaf), Jose Manuel Rebolledo, 52 percent of the fires are affecting the Valparaiso region in the center of the country.

Rebolledo added that the increase in both the number of fires and the amount of those set intentionally "worries us and we are responsible for safeguarding people's lives, people's homes."

The Chilean Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning said Monday that the Valparaiso fires have left 274 houses damaged, 253 of which are beyond repair.

Authorities were able to get the Valparaiso fires fully under control on December 25 after flames consumed 236 hectares of land and dozens of homes belonging to the region's poorest.

The Chilean government has said that in early 2020, it will begin a housing subsidy program to help affected families rebuild or buy new homes.