Nacimiento fire, February 2023 Nacimiento, Santa Juana, Angol
The fire started on 3 February 2023 in Nacimiento, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 111,272 hectares from heat detections, spread across 10 municipalities.
This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.
Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:
- 31,792 haQuillónFebruary 2023 · 13 days
- 19,213 haMulchén3 February 2023 · 13 days
- 13,271 haHualqui17 February 2023 · 8 days
- 10,542 haCollipulli1 February 2023 · 10 days
- 5,946 haErcilla3 February 2023 · 10 days
- 5,674 haYumbelFebruary 2023 · 6 days
- 4,416 haHualqui3 February 2023 · 10 days
- 3,858 haLos SaucesFebruary 2023 · 5 days
It is the largest fire in Región del Bío-Bío since 2016 (of 74 with a page). The largest in Chile in 2023, of 70.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 111,272ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 19days
- 3 Feb 2023 – 21 Feb 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 10
- communes
- Started on
- 3 Feb
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 8,665
- in a single hotspot: 799 MW
- Danger at start
- 65
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 10.4GW
- 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 42 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
9% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 393 ha in 2017, 2,611 ha in 2019, 4,817 ha in 2020, 2,011 ha in 2021, 368 ha in 2022.
- 2,611 ha Nacimiento fire, February 2019 3,566 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,260 ha Renaico fire, February 2020 2,276 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,279 ha Santa Juana fire, January 2021 1,428 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,250 ha Santa Juana fire, January 2020 2,283 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 393 ha Hualqui fire, January 2017 14,653 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 368 ha Santa Juana fire, December 2022 6,504 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
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
-
Nacimiento where it started46,581 ha reached on 3 Feb51 %
-
36,756 ha reached on 3 Feb47 %
-
10,437 ha reached on 3 Feb8.7 %
-
6,792 ha reached on 3 Feb26 %
-
5,393 ha reached on 4 Feb47 %
-
1,684 ha reached on 3 Feb1.8 %
-
1,515 ha reached on 4 Feb9.7 %
-
1,157 ha reached on 4 Feb4.2 %
-
1,134 ha reached on 4 Feb2.1 %
-
8 ha0.0 %
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 2025Inside the perimeter there were about 145 hectares of built-up land and about 6,500 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Feb | 39.4 °C | 16 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 4 Feb | 28.2 °C | 42 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 5 Feb | 30.5 °C | 38 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 6 Feb | 32.1 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 7 Feb | 32.3 °C | 20 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 8 Feb | 30.8 °C | 33 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 9 Feb | 31.8 °C | 26 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 10 Feb | 30.4 °C | 35 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 11 Feb | 30.1 °C | 27 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 12 Feb | 24.4 °C | 47 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 13 Feb | 26.4 °C | 28 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 14 Feb | 25.6 °C | 40 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 15 Feb | 27.0 °C | 38 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 16 Feb | 24.6 °C | 25 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 17 Feb | 27.1 °C | 14 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 18 Feb | 29.4 °C | 16 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 19 Feb | 28.7 °C | 34 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 20 Feb | 29.0 °C | 23 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 21 Feb | 30.3 °C | 22 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 22 Feb after | 30.0 °C | 27 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 23 Feb after | 30.6 °C | 30 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 24 Feb after | 28.5 °C | 33 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 25 Feb after | 23.7 °C | 34 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 26 Feb after | 27.2 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 27 Feb after | 30.7 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 28 Feb after | 29.8 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 1 Mar after | 28.2 °C | 33 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 2 Mar after | 30.9 °C | 29 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 3 Mar after | 28.3 °C | 38 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
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 844 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 406: 27 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 · 8,665Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,566 haNacimientoFebruary 2019 · 6 days · 11 km away
- 6,504 haSanta JuanaDecember 2022 · 2 days · 14 km away
- 6,292 haLajaJanuary 2026 · 6 days · 22 km away
- 14,653 haHualqui26 January 2017 · 8 days · 32 km away
- 5,674 haYumbelFebruary 2023 · 6 days · 33 km away
- 7,088 haYumbelMarch 2022 · 4 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Nacimiento fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 3 February 2023 to 21 February 2023 (19 days). The perimeter dates it from 3 February 2023 to 14 February 2023.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 111,272 hectares (1,112.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 10 municipalities: Nacimiento (46,581 ha, 51 %); Santa Juana (36,756 ha, 47 %); Angol (10,437 ha, 8.7 %); Renaico (6,792 ha, 26 %); Lota (5,393 ha, 47 %); Arauco (1,684 ha, 1.8 %); Negrete (1,515 ha, 9.7 %); Coronel (1,157 ha, 4.2 %); Hualqui (1,134 ha, 2.1 %); Los Ángeles (8 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.4 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 65, 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 · 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.
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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 3 February 2023 to 14 February 2023. 8,665 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.