How long did the Ránquil fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 January 2026 and 20 January 2026: 7 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 7,322 hectares (73.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 4 municipalities: Ránquil (4,331 ha, 17 %); Portezuelo (1,598 ha, 5.5 %); Treguaco (1,320 ha, 4.2 %); Coelemu (86 ha, 0.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.

CL · Chile · 2026-01-14 → 2026-01-20

Ránquil fire, January 2026 Ránquil, Portezuelo, Treguaco

Out · last detection 20 Jan 2026, 19:20 UTC

The fire started on 14 January 2026 in Ránquil, Chile, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,322 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 8th largest in Región de Ñuble since 2016 (of 56 with a page). Number 5 in Chile in 2026, of 63.

Burnt area: 7,322ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 7days; 14 Jan 2026 – 20 Jan 2026
Municipalities hit: 4; communes
Started on: 14 Jan; 2026
Heat detections: 365; in a single hotspot: 279 MW
Danger at start: 26; High · FWI index
Energy released: 7.5GW; sum of detected power

Play back 20 Jan 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Jan20 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

14151617181920

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

The weather it burned in

35°high

64km/h · peak gust

17%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 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: 664 ha in 2023.

What happened to each town

Ránquil where it started

4,331 ha reached on 14 Jan

17 %
Portezuelo

1,598 ha reached on 18 Jan

5.5 %
Treguaco

1,320 ha reached on 18 Jan

4.2 %
Coelemu

86 ha reached on 18 Jan

0.2 %

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)
14 Jan	26.2 °C	37 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
15 Jan	26.0 °C	32 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
16 Jan	30.8 °C	25 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
17 Jan	30.4 °C	17 %	62 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
18 Jan	34.7 °C	21 %	64 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
19 Jan	34.5 °C	29 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
20 Jan	28.4 °C	37 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
21 Jan after	27.5 °C	39 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
22 Jan after	28.0 °C	38 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
23 Jan after	29.7 °C	35 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
24 Jan after	27.2 °C	41 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
25 Jan after	23.7 °C	43 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
26 Jan after	28.1 °C	38 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
27 Jan after	28.8 °C	42 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
28 Jan after	33.1 °C	35 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
29 Jan after	31.8 °C	49 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
30 Jan after	26.7 °C	60 %	42 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 21

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 7 Jan 2026

After · 27 Jan 2026

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 20 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 112 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 61: 4.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak112 µg/m³

Days over the guideline4 days

PM10118 µg/m³

Optical depth0.86

WHO 15

121314151617181920212223

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 · 365Every 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 Ránquil fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 January 2026 and 20 January 2026: 7 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 7,322 hectares (73.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 4 municipalities: Ránquil (4,331 ha, 17 %); Portezuelo (1,598 ha, 5.5 %); Treguaco (1,320 ha, 4.2 %); Coelemu (86 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.

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.

Report an error

What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

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