Mulchén fire, 17 February 2022 Mulchén, Los Ángeles
The fire started on 17 February 2022 in Mulchén, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,742 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 38th largest in Región del Bío-Bío since 2016 (of 74 with a page). Number 26 in Chile in 2022, of 51.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 1,742ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 17 Feb 2022 – 19 Feb 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- communes
- Started on
- 17 Feb
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 82
- in a single hotspot: 157 MW
- Danger at start
- 31
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 774MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 16.0 mm on 23 Feb.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
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
-
Mulchén where it started1,626 ha reached on 18 Feb0.8 %
-
112 ha reached on 18 Feb0.1 %
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 Feb | 26.3 °C | 28 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 19 Feb | 25.6 °C | 42 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 20 Feb after | 22.0 °C | 38 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 21 Feb after | 26.8 °C | 35 % | 33 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 22 |
| 22 Feb after | 24.2 °C | 38 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 23 Feb after | 22.3 °C | 43 % | 48 km/h | 16.0 mm | Very low 3 |
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.
Detections table · 82Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 19,213 haMulchén3 February 2023 · 11 days · 14 km away
- 4,094 haMulchén22 January 2017 · 4 days · 19 km away
- 8,462 haMulchén3 February 2023 · 13 days · 28 km away
- 5,902 haMulchén12 February 2022 · 8 days · 28 km away
- 6,292 haLajaJanuary 2026 · 6 days · 38 km away
- 3,566 haNacimientoFebruary 2019 · 6 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mulchén fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 17 February 2022 to 19 February 2022 (3 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 February 2022 to 19 February 2022.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,742 hectares (17.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mulchén (1,626 ha, 0.8 %); Los Ángeles (112 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 26.3 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 18 February 2022 to 19 February 2022. 82 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.
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.