Ercilla fire, 3 February 2023 Ercilla, Traiguén, Angol
The fire started on 3 February 2023 in Ercilla, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,946 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the 12th largest in Región de La Araucanía since 2016 (of 159 with a page). Number 20 in Chile in 2023, of 70.
- Burnt area
- 5,946ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 3 Feb 2023 – 11 Feb 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- communes
- Started on
- 3 Feb
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 293
- in a single hotspot: 161 MW
- Danger at start
- 42
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 5.3GW
- 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 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
78% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,040 ha in 2016, 45 ha in 2017, 1,019 ha in 2018, 3,447 ha in 2020, 758 ha in 2021, 855 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,626 ha that had burned before.
- 1,019 ha Ercilla fire, January 2018 2,480 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,007 ha Ercilla fire, January 2020 1,350 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 753 ha Traiguén fire, March 2020 1,201 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 733 ha Ercilla fire, March 2020 1,143 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 680 ha Los Sauces fire, February 2022 1,663 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 263 ha Traiguén fire, January 2020 1,933 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 236 ha Ercilla fire, December 2021 1,021 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 77 ha Los Sauces fire, December 2021 13,252 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Ercilla where it started2,126 ha reached on 4 Feb4.3 %
-
1,766 ha reached on 3 Feb2.0 %
-
1,292 ha reached on 5 Feb1.1 %
-
772 ha reached on 4 Feb0.9 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Feb | 38.7 °C | 16 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 4 Feb | 34.8 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 5 Feb | 28.3 °C | 38 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 6 Feb | 28.9 °C | 32 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 7 Feb | 28.7 °C | 25 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 8 Feb | 28.6 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 9 Feb | 29.6 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 10 Feb | 27.1 °C | 37 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 11 Feb | 27.1 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 12 Feb after | 23.2 °C | 53 % | 40 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 13 Feb after | 22.8 °C | 39 % | 40 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 14 Feb after | 21.8 °C | 47 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 15 Feb after | 23.2 °C | 46 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 16 Feb after | 21.1 °C | 31 % | 61 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 17 Feb after | 26.5 °C | 13 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 18 Feb after | 28.1 °C | 18 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 19 Feb after | 26.1 °C | 39 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 20 Feb after | 26.1 °C | 27 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 21 Feb after | 27.1 °C | 28 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 22 Feb after | 27.7 °C | 29 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 5 February 2023 the air beside the fire reached 784 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 441: 29 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 293Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 13,252 haLos SaucesDecember 2021 · 7 days · 7 km away
- 10,542 haCollipulli1 February 2023 · 10 days · 19 km away
- 12,385 haTraiguénMarch 2025 · 6 days · 30 km away
- 11,526 haMulchén3 February 2023 · 10 days · 38 km away
- 19,213 haMulchén3 February 2023 · 11 days · 39 km away
- 9,086 haLumaco2 February 2023 · 8 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ercilla fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 February 2023 and 11 February 2023: 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 5,946 hectares (59.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Ercilla (2,126 ha, 4.3 %); Traiguén (1,766 ha, 2.0 %); Angol (1,292 ha, 1.1 %); Los Sauces (772 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.7 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very 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.