Burned area
satellite only3,858ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 4 Feb 2023 – 8 Feb 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
CL · Chile · –
Los Sauces fire, February 2023 Los Sauces
Out · last detection 8 Feb 2023, 19:09 UTC
The fire started on 4 February 2023 in Los Sauces, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,858 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 18th largest in Región de La Araucanía since 2016 (of 128 with a page). Number 32 in Chile in 2023, of 70.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only5days
4 Feb 2023 to 8 Feb 2023: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 8 Feb 2023, 19:09 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only4 Feb 2023
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 4 Feb 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only227
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 187 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 4 Feb 2023 – 8 Feb 2023
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only2,993MW
Total radiative power on 4 February 2023; hotspots that day: 103.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 4 Feb 2023
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model34.5FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 10.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 4 Feb 2023, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model36.0°C · 23% RH
High of 36.0 °C and minimum humidity of 23% on 4 February 2023; gusts of 46 km/h on 6 February 2023.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 4 Feb 2023 – 8 Feb 2023
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Living inside
model≈ 30people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 1.6 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2025).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 3,858 ha
- Dates
- 4 Feb 2023 – 8 Feb 2023
- Name
- Los Sauces
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/los-sauces-2023-02?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire los-sauces-2023-02.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-02-04 | 103 | 2,993 | 36 | 16.8 | 23 | 14.8 | 31.3 | 0 | 34.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-02-05 | 32 | 413 | 28.9 | 15 | 38 | 19.4 | 42.1 | 0 | 35.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-02-06 | 16 | 236 | 29.4 | 12.4 | 31 | 20.3 | 46.4 | 0 | 41.7 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-02-07 | 54 | 1,995 | 29.4 | 10.7 | 24 | 16.9 | 39.6 | 0 | 40.8 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-02-08 | 22 | 121 | 29 | 11.9 | 36 | 15.8 | 33.1 | 0 | 37.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-02-09 | 0 | 0 | 29.8 | 12.3 | 31 | 15.4 | 32.8 | 0 | 31.8 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-02-10 | 0 | 0 | 27.3 | 15.7 | 38 | 16.6 | 35.6 | 0.1 | 27.1 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-02-11 | 0 | 0 | 27.6 | 10.8 | 32 | 12.8 | 32 | 0 | 27.6 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-02-12 | 0 | 0 | 22.8 | 14.4 | 56 | 19.9 | 43.9 | 0.9 | 22.2 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-02-13 | 0 | 0 | 23 | 12.1 | 39 | 18.4 | 41.4 | 0.1 | 22.6 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-02-14 | 0 | 0 | 22.1 | 11 | 49 | 15.6 | 36 | 0 | 22.1 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-02-15 | 0 | 0 | 23.4 | 13 | 48 | 22.4 | 48.6 | 0 | 29.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-02-16 | 0 | 0 | 21.4 | 8.9 | 32 | 26.5 | 57.2 | 0 | 40.3 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2023-02-17 | 0 | 0 | 26.1 | 7.9 | 13 | 20 | 46.8 | 0 | 54 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-02-18 | 0 | 0 | 28.8 | 8.4 | 18 | 12.7 | 25.9 | 0 | 43.5 | muy_alto | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 3,858ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 4 Feb 2023 – 8 Feb 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 4 Feb
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 227
- in a single hotspot: 187 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 1.2GW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
4 Feb8 Feb
8 Feb 2023
How it evolved, day by day
4 Feb
5 Feb
6 Feb
7 Feb
8 Feb
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
46km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity
It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1 ha in 2022.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Los Sauces where it started3,867 ha reached on 4 Feb4.5 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Built-up area1.6 ha
Residents≈ 30
Inside the perimeter there were about 1.6 hectares of built-up land and about 30 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Feb | 36.0 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 5 Feb | 28.9 °C | 38 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 6 Feb | 29.4 °C | 31 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 7 Feb | 29.4 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 8 Feb | 29.0 °C | 36 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 9 Feb after | 29.8 °C | 31 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 10 Feb after | 27.3 °C | 38 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 27 |
| 11 Feb after | 27.6 °C | 32 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 12 Feb after | 22.8 °C | 56 % | 44 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 22 |
| 13 Feb after | 23.0 °C | 39 % | 41 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 23 |
| 14 Feb after | 22.1 °C | 49 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 15 Feb after | 23.4 °C | 48 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 16 Feb after | 21.4 °C | 32 % | 57 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 17 Feb after | 26.1 °C | 13 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 18 Feb after | 28.8 °C | 18 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 34.5, a minimum humidity of 23% and 10 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 21.
FWI at the start
34.5
Minimum humidity
23 %
Days without rain
10
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Los Sauces fire, February 2023
3,858 ha
5 days
FWI 34.5
Min. humidity 23 %
Alto Biobío fire, March 2023
1,031 ha
11 days
FWI 34.0
Min. humidity 22 %
150 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Mulchén fire, February 2022
1,742 ha
3 days
FWI 37.0
Min. humidity 24 %
62 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 16.0 mm on 23 Feb.
Traiguén fire, February 2020
2,136 ha
3 days
FWI 37.0
Min. humidity 22 %
34 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Victoria fire, February 2020
1,276 ha
2 days
FWI 36.6
Min. humidity 24 %
58 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Mulchén fire, February 2022
5,902 ha
8 days
FWI 29.6
Min. humidity 23 %
53 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 9.5 mm on 23 Feb.
What happened to them
- 5 days
- median duration
- 1,451 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 8.4 mm
- rain at the end (median; 13 of 21 had it)
It was 2.7 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 5 days, against 5 days.
Only 3 of its 21 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 8 of 21, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 8.4 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
46km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 8 Feb, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 13 of 21, with a median of 8.4 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 28 Jan 2023
After · 15 Feb 2023
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 4 February 2023 the air beside the fire reached 576 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 319: 21 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak576 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM10825 µg/m³
Optical depth4.34
WHO 15
2 Feb4 Feb6 Feb8 Feb10 Feb
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 · 227Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 13,252 haLos SaucesDecember 2021 · 7 days · 16 km away
- 9,086 haLumaco2 February 2023 · 8 days · 25 km away
- 8,056 haTraiguén4 February 2023 · 14 days · 28 km away
- 12,385 haTraiguénMarch 2025 · 7 days · 35 km away
- 10,542 haCollipulli1 February 2023 · 10 days · 40 km away
- 10,252 haGalvarino3 February 2023 · 7 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Los Sauces fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 February 2023 and 8 February 2023: 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 3,858 hectares (38.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Los Sauces (3,867 ha, 4.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 46 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 21. Their median duration was 5 days and their median area 1,451 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 3 of its 21 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 8 of 21, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 8.4 mm.
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 · Emergency number and official warnings
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 227 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.