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Curacaví fire, January 2017 Curacaví, Casablanca

Out · last detection 27 Jan 2017, 19:15 UTC

The fire started on 19 January 2017 in Curacaví, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,278 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Región Metropolitana de Santiago since 2016 (of 29 with a page). Number 14 in Chile in 2017, of 56.

Burnt area
7,278ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
19 Jan 2017 – 27 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
19 Jan
2017
Heat detections
529
in a single hotspot: 223 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Energy released
11.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Jan27 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

192021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
58km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.9 mm on 3 Feb.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Curacaví where it started
    4,393 ha reached on 19 Jan
    6.3 %
  2. Casablanca
    2,902 ha reached on 20 Jan
    3.0 %

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)
19 Jan 26.6 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
20 Jan 30.3 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
21 Jan 25.1 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
22 Jan 22.9 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
23 Jan 23.8 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
24 Jan 28.1 °C 23 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
25 Jan 27.4 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
26 Jan 24.3 °C 42 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
27 Jan 24.6 °C 45 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
28 Jan after 22.6 °C 48 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
29 Jan after 23.6 °C 43 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
30 Jan after 25.1 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
31 Jan after 23.8 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
1 Feb after 23.3 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
2 Feb after 20.1 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
3 Feb after 17.4 °C 42 % 36 km/h 3.9 mm Very low 3

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Jan 2017
After · 3 Feb 2017

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

Detections table · 529Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Chile ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Curacaví fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 January 2017 and 27 January 2017: 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 7,278 hectares (72.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Curacaví (4,393 ha, 6.3 %); Casablanca (2,902 ha, 3.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.3 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class 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

Satellite cross-check

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?

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.