How long did the Concepción fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 January 2026 and 25 January 2026: 9 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 27,577 hectares (275.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 6 municipalities: Concepción (14,704 ha, 67 %); Penco (7,969 ha, 74 %); Tomé (3,207 ha, 6.5 %); Hualqui (907 ha, 1.7 %); Florida (421 ha, 0.7 %); Chiguayante (273 ha, 3.6 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.5 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very high.

Where does this data come from?

From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Chile (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

CL · Chile · 2026-01-17 → 2026-01-25

Concepción fire, January 2026 Concepción, Penco, Tomé

Out · last detection 23 Jan 2026, 18:23 UTC

The fire started on 17 January 2026 in Concepción, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 27,577 hectares from heat detections, spread across 6 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Región del Bío-Bío since 2016 (of 74 with a page). The largest in Chile in 2026, of 63.

Burnt area: 27,577ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 9days; 17 Jan 2026 – 25 Jan 2026
Municipalities hit: 6; communes
Started on: 17 Jan; 2026
Heat detections: 1,906; in a single hotspot: 367 MW
Danger at start: 30; High · FWI index
Energy released: 55.7GW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Jan 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Jan25 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

17181920212223

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

34°high

53km/h · peak gust

12%lowest humidity

It had gone 26 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.9 mm on 30 Jan.

This area had burned before

62% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 13,091 ha in 2017, 2,474 ha in 2022, 3,339 ha in 2023, 283 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 17,120 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Concepción where it started

14,704 ha reached on 17 Jan

67 %
Penco

7,969 ha reached on 18 Jan

74 %
Tomé

3,207 ha reached on 18 Jan

6.5 %
Hualqui

907 ha reached on 18 Jan

1.7 %
Florida

421 ha reached on 18 Jan

0.7 %
Chiguayante

273 ha reached on 18 Jan

3.6 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day	High	Min. humidity	Peak gust	Rain	Danger (FWI)
17 Jan	29.1 °C	15 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
18 Jan	34.5 °C	12 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
19 Jan	29.5 °C	34 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
20 Jan	22.5 °C	46 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
21 Jan	22.1 °C	48 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
22 Jan	22.8 °C	47 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
23 Jan	24.2 °C	43 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
24 Jan	22.0 °C	49 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
25 Jan	20.6 °C	46 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
26 Jan after	24.5 °C	41 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
27 Jan after	24.9 °C	43 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
28 Jan after	28.7 °C	46 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
29 Jan after	26.6 °C	50 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
30 Jan after	26.1 °C	56 %	35 km/h	8.9 mm	Very low 2

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

↔

Before · 10 Jan 2026

After · 1 Feb 2026

Before After

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 20 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 370 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 208: 14 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak370 µg/m³

Days over the guideline6 days

PM10376 µg/m³

Optical depth0.78

WHO 15

1516171819202122232425262728

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 1,906Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.

⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.

Date and time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Chile ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Concepción fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 January 2026 and 25 January 2026: 9 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 27,577 hectares (275.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 6 municipalities: Concepción (14,704 ha, 67 %); Penco (7,969 ha, 74 %); Tomé (3,207 ha, 6.5 %); Hualqui (907 ha, 1.7 %); Florida (421 ha, 0.7 %); Chiguayante (273 ha, 3.6 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.5 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?: From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Chile (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 130 (CONAF) · 132

CONAF · Corporación Nacional Forestal ↗
SENAPRED ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

Report an error

What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 130 (CONAF) · 132.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.

Where it burned