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Ercilla fire, January 2019 Ercilla, Traiguén

Out · last detection 10 Feb 2019, 06:03 UTC

The fire started on 30 January 2019 in Ercilla, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,841 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 55th largest in Región de La Araucanía since 2016 (of 159 with a page). Number 13 in Chile in 2019, of 44.

Burnt area
1,841ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
30 Jan 2019 – 10 Feb 2019
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
30 Jan
2019
Heat detections
60
in a single hotspot: 120 MW
Danger at start
14
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
902MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Feb 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Jan10 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

30311234568910

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
51km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 19 Feb.

This area had burned before

24% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 435 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Ercilla where it started
    1,599 ha reached on 30 Jan
    3.2 %
  2. Traiguén
    245 ha reached on 9 Feb
    0.3 %

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)
30 Jan 22.7 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
31 Jan 23.8 °C 33 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
1 Feb 26.1 °C 39 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
2 Feb 35.5 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
3 Feb 34.1 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
4 Feb 31.9 °C 45 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
5 Feb 27.8 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
6 Feb 23.2 °C 47 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
7 Feb 22.9 °C 36 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
8 Feb 23.0 °C 35 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
9 Feb 23.6 °C 41 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
10 Feb 17.9 °C 63 % 33 km/h 4.2 mm Very low 2
11 Feb after 24.5 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
12 Feb after 31.0 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
13 Feb after 25.8 °C 40 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
14 Feb after 27.8 °C 38 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
15 Feb after 32.7 °C 35 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
16 Feb after 24.2 °C 58 % 22 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 12
17 Feb after 24.6 °C 51 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
18 Feb after 22.5 °C 48 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
19 Feb after 22.0 °C 69 % 32 km/h 1.0 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Jan 2019
After · 17 Feb 2019

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 · 60Every 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 Ercilla fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 January 2019 and 10 February 2019: 12 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 1,841 hectares (18.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ercilla (1,599 ha, 3.2 %); Traiguén (245 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 51 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
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.