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Laja fire, January 2026 Laja, Los Ángeles

Out · last detection 23 Jan 2026, 18:23 UTC

The fire started on 18 January 2026 in Laja, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,292 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 13th largest in Región del Bío-Bío since 2016 (of 74 with a page). Number 8 in Chile in 2026, of 63.

Burnt area
6,292ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
18 Jan 2026 – 23 Jan 2026
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
18 Jan
2026
Heat detections
370
in a single hotspot: 155 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
7.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Jan 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Jan23 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

181920212223

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
57km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 31.3 mm on 30 Jan.

This area had burned before

28% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 225 ha in 2018, 1,514 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

  1. Laja where it started
    6,037 ha reached on 18 Jan
    17 %
  2. Los Ángeles
    267 ha reached on 18 Jan
    0.2 %

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)
18 Jan 34.0 °C 21 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Jan 36.1 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Jan 31.4 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Jan 28.9 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
22 Jan 28.6 °C 34 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
23 Jan 30.5 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
24 Jan after 28.7 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
25 Jan after 25.4 °C 37 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
26 Jan after 29.0 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
27 Jan after 29.3 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
28 Jan after 33.6 °C 36 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
29 Jan after 34.6 °C 42 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 Jan after 24.2 °C 70 % 28 km/h 31.3 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Jan 2026
After · 30 Jan 2026

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 · Copernicus

On 20 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 138 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 79: 5.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak138 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM10139 µg/m³
Optical depth0.51
1617181920212223242526
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 370Every 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 Laja fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 January 2026 and 23 January 2026: 6 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 6,292 hectares (62.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Laja (6,037 ha, 17 %); Los Ángeles (267 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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
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.