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Ercilla fire, January 2020 Angol, Ercilla, Los Sauces

Out · last detection 20 Jan 2020, 19:13 UTC

The fire started on 16 January 2020 in Ercilla, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,350 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 101th largest in Región de La Araucanía since 2016 (of 159 with a page). Number 26 in Chile in 2020, of 37.

Burnt area
1,350ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
16 Jan 2020 – 20 Jan 2020
Municipalities hit
3
communes
Started on
16 Jan
2020
Heat detections
59
in a single hotspot: 79 MW
Danger at start
23
High · FWI index
Energy released
616MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Jan 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Jan20 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

1617181920

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
62km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

23% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 307 ha in 2016, 95 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 307 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Angol
    808 ha reached on 17 Jan
    0.7 %
  2. Ercilla where it started
    526 ha reached on 16 Jan
    1.1 %
  3. Los Sauces
    20 ha
    0.0 %

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)
16 Jan 25.8 °C 32 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
17 Jan 30.7 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
18 Jan 28.8 °C 39 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
19 Jan 27.3 °C 38 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
20 Jan 27.5 °C 42 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
21 Jan after 30.6 °C 39 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
22 Jan after 31.2 °C 41 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
23 Jan after 28.3 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
24 Jan after 27.5 °C 28 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
25 Jan after 27.3 °C 42 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
26 Jan after 26.9 °C 40 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
27 Jan after 28.5 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
28 Jan after 21.9 °C 37 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
29 Jan after 23.0 °C 33 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
30 Jan after 26.4 °C 29 % 44 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.

Before · 9 Jan 2020
After · 27 Jan 2020

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 · 59Every 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 16 January 2020 and 20 January 2020: 5 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 1,350 hectares (13.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Angol (808 ha, 0.7 %); Ercilla (526 ha, 1.1 %); Los Sauces (20 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.7 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 62 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, 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.