Skip to content
worldfires
CL · Chile · →

Ercilla fire, December 2021 Ercilla, Traiguén

Out · last detection 29 Dec 2021, 05:20 UTC

The fire started on 21 December 2021 in Ercilla, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,021 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 155th largest in Región de La Araucanía since 2016 (of 159 with a page). Number 20 in Chile in 2021, of 20.

The power measured by the satellite is low (17.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
1,021ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
21 Dec 2021 – 29 Dec 2021
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
21 Dec
2021
Heat detections
42
in a single hotspot: 18 MW
Danger at start
25
High · FWI index
Energy released
239MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Dec 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Dec29 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

212223242526272829

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
53km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 18.4 mm on 2 Jan.

This area had burned before

91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 366 ha in 2016, 103 ha in 2017, 739 ha in 2018, 166 ha in 2019, 642 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 933 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ercilla where it started
    1,018 ha reached on 21 Dec
    2.0 %
  2. Traiguén
    5 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)
21 Dec 25.6 °C 32 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
22 Dec 31.8 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
23 Dec 24.4 °C 47 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
24 Dec 26.3 °C 34 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
25 Dec 28.3 °C 36 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
26 Dec 28.1 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
27 Dec 28.6 °C 37 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
28 Dec 29.0 °C 34 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
29 Dec 21.5 °C 63 % 34 km/h 2.1 mm Very low 4
30 Dec after 20.9 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
31 Dec after 21.7 °C 40 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
1 Jan after 19.4 °C 50 % 43 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 19
2 Jan after 17.5 °C 82 % 46 km/h 18.4 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Dec 2021
After · 5 Jan 2022

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 · 42Every 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 21 December 2021 and 29 December 2021: 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 1,021 hectares (10.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ercilla (1,018 ha, 2.0 %); Traiguén (5 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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.