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Quillón fire, February 2023 Quillón, Ránquil, Cabrero

Out · last detection 12 Feb 2023, 05:33 UTC

The fire started on 2 February 2023 in Quillón, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 31,792 hectares from heat detections, spread across 7 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Región de Ñuble since 2016 (of 56 with a page). Number 3 in Chile in 2023, of 70.

Burnt area
31,792ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
2 Feb 2023 – 11 Feb 2023
Municipalities hit
7
communes
Started on
2 Feb
2023
Heat detections
2,376
in a single hotspot: 500 MW
Danger at start
68
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
67.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Feb 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Feb11 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

23456789101112

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
66km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

16% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,799 ha in 2017, 464 ha in 2019, 1,742 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,191 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Quillón where it started
    18,270 ha reached on 2 Feb
    45 %
  2. Ránquil
    7,658 ha reached on 2 Feb
    31 %
  3. Cabrero
    3,498 ha reached on 2 Feb
    5.3 %
  4. Yumbel
    2,177 ha reached on 2 Feb
    3.0 %
  5. Florida
    236 ha reached on 4 Feb
    0.4 %
  6. Portezuelo
    5 ha reached on 3 Feb
    0.0 %
  7. Bulnes
    1 ha
    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)
2 Feb 33.3 °C 13 % 66 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
3 Feb 39.5 °C 15 % 66 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
4 Feb 30.3 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Feb 33.1 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Feb 34.6 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Feb 35.4 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
8 Feb 32.8 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
9 Feb 33.7 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Feb 30.6 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Feb 31.1 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Feb after 25.2 °C 41 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
13 Feb after 27.2 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Feb after 27.1 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Feb after 28.1 °C 30 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Feb after 24.0 °C 22 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Feb after 30.5 °C 8 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
18 Feb after 31.8 °C 9 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
19 Feb after 30.2 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Feb after 31.2 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Feb after 32.7 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Feb after 31.5 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Feb after 32.3 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Feb after 29.4 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Jan 2023
After · 18 Feb 2023

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 4 February 2023 the air beside the fire reached 1,170 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 543: 36 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak1,170 µg/m³
Days over the guideline11 days
PM101,676 µg/m³
Optical depth6.00
311234567891011121314
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 · 2,376Every 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 Quillón fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 February 2023 and 11 February 2023: 10 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 31,792 hectares (317.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 7 municipalities: Quillón (18,270 ha, 45 %); Ránquil (7,658 ha, 31 %); Cabrero (3,498 ha, 5.3 %); Yumbel (2,177 ha, 3.0 %); Florida (236 ha, 0.4 %); Portezuelo (5 ha, 0.0 %); Bulnes (1 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 66 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 70, 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

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.