Ercilla fire, January 2018 Ercilla
The fire started on 17 January 2018 in Ercilla, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,480 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 40th largest in Región de La Araucanía since 2016 (of 159 with a page). The largest in Chile in 2018, of 10.
- Burnt area
- 2,480ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 17 Jan 2018 – 26 Jan 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 17 Jan
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 85
- in a single hotspot: 195 MW
- Danger at start
- 20
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.0GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 893 ha in 2016, 307 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
Ercilla where it started2,483 ha reached on 18 Jan5.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Jan | 23.7 °C | 43 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 18 Jan | 26.2 °C | 45 % | 62 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 19 Jan | 30.3 °C | 36 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 20 Jan | 26.7 °C | 55 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 21 Jan | 23.2 °C | 48 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 22 Jan | 25.4 °C | 39 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 23 Jan | 24.3 °C | 36 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 24 Jan | 26.8 °C | 37 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 25 Jan | 27.7 °C | 36 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 26 Jan | 22.1 °C | 41 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 27 Jan after | 22.8 °C | 36 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 28 Jan after | 25.0 °C | 31 % | 57 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 29 Jan after | 24.5 °C | 40 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 30 Jan after | 23.2 °C | 36 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 31 Jan after | 27.6 °C | 32 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 1 Feb after | 31.7 °C | 31 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 2 Feb after | 28.0 °C | 50 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 3 Feb after | 28.1 °C | 42 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 4 Feb after | 28.7 °C | 32 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 5 Feb after | 30.0 °C | 39 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 85Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ercilla fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 January 2018 and 26 January 2018: 10 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 2,480 hectares (24.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ercilla (2,483 ha, 5.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.3 °C, humidity dropped to 36 % and gusts hit 62 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, 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
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.