How long did the Mulchén fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 February 2023 and 13 February 2023: 11 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 19,213 hectares (192.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 4 municipalities: Mulchén (18,505 ha, 9.6 %); Collipulli (672 ha, 0.5 %); Renaico (24 ha, 0.1 %); Los Ángeles (5 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 40.0 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class Extreme.

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.

CL · Chile · 2023-02-03 → 2023-02-13

Mulchén fire, 3 February 2023 Mulchén, Collipulli, Renaico

Out · last detection 14 Feb 2023, 18:56 UTC

The fire started on 3 February 2023 in Mulchén, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 19,213 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Región del Bío-Bío since 2016 (of 74 with a page). Number 4 in Chile in 2023, of 70.

Burnt area: 19,213ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 11days; 3 Feb 2023 – 13 Feb 2023
Municipalities hit: 4; communes
Started on: 3 Feb; 2023
Heat detections: 1,361; in a single hotspot: 603 MW
Danger at start: 53; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 31.5GW; sum of detected power

Play back 14 Feb 2023

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Feb13 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

34567891011121314

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

The weather it burned in

40°high

59km/h · peak gust

15%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

26% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,527 ha in 2017, 883 ha in 2018, 914 ha in 2019, 901 ha in 2021, 789 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,923 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Mulchén where it started

18,505 ha reached on 3 Feb

9.6 %
Collipulli

672 ha reached on 4 Feb

0.5 %
Renaico

24 ha

0.1 %
Los Ángeles

5 ha reached on 8 Feb

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)
3 Feb	40.0 °C	15 %	59 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
4 Feb	34.3 °C	28 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
5 Feb	29.7 °C	37 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
6 Feb	30.3 °C	30 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
7 Feb	30.3 °C	24 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
8 Feb	30.3 °C	34 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
9 Feb	31.0 °C	28 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
10 Feb	29.1 °C	36 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
11 Feb	28.9 °C	30 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
12 Feb	25.5 °C	46 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
13 Feb	25.1 °C	34 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
14 Feb after	23.4 °C	45 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
15 Feb after	24.9 °C	43 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
16 Feb after	22.5 °C	30 %	62 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
17 Feb after	27.5 °C	14 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
18 Feb after	29.3 °C	17 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
19 Feb after	27.5 °C	38 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
20 Feb after	27.6 °C	26 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
21 Feb after	28.7 °C	27 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
22 Feb after	28.9 °C	28 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
23 Feb after	29.6 °C	31 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
24 Feb after	27.5 °C	32 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
25 Feb after	22.5 °C	34 %	40 km/h	0.3 mm	High 32

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 27 Jan 2023

After · 20 Feb 2023

Before After

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 5 February 2023 the air beside the fire reached 771 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 495: 33 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak771 µg/m³

Days over the guideline10 days

PM101,103 µg/m³

Optical depth5.66

WHO 15

12345678910111213141516

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 · 1,361Every 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

All fires in Chile ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mulchén fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 February 2023 and 13 February 2023: 11 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 19,213 hectares (192.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 4 municipalities: Mulchén (18,505 ha, 9.6 %); Collipulli (672 ha, 0.5 %); Renaico (24 ha, 0.1 %); Los Ángeles (5 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 40.0 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class Extreme.
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

CONAF · Corporación Nacional Forestal ↗
SENAPRED ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned