Forest fires in Chile

Wildfires continue to severely impact south‑central Chile, with persistent hotspots across Biobío, Ñuble, Maule, Los Ríos, Valparaíso, and Isla de Pascua, where a red alert was declared due to an imminent threat to homes. 

As of 3 February, over 66,000 hectares have burned, resulting in 21 deaths, 333 injuries, 21,803 people affected, and 4,137 homes destroyed, mostly in Biobío and Ñuble. 

Authorities have begun early recovery efforts, including the Bono de Recuperación, large‑scale debris removal, and support for agricultural and apiculture recovery.

According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), as of 15 January, at least two people died, 10 have been injured, and 2168 have been displaced, with 159 affected people. 
Since 1 January 2026, the National Forest Corporation (CONAF) has reported a total burnt area of 3839 hectares.

According to the JRC Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), the fire danger forecast is from high to very extreme in central and northern Chile.

The National Forest Corporation (CONAF) reports 451 wildfires and a total burnt area of 1680 hectares since 1 January 2026.
According to the JRC Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), the fire danger forecast is from high to very extreme over northern Chile.

According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), as of 9 January, one person died, five have been injured, and 1478 have been displaced across Los Lagos, Los Ríos, Magallanes, Maule, Metropolitan Region of Santiago, Araucanía, Aysén, and Biobío regions.

Several wildfires have continued to affect Chile since early December, resulting in casualties and damage. The most affected regions are Araucanía, Biobio, Libertador, Los Lagos, Maule, Metropolitana, and Valparaíso.

Since 5 February, devastating wildfires have been sweeping through central and southern Chile, affecting communities in Biobío, La Araucanía, and Los Ríos. 

Fueled by extreme heat, strong winds, and prolonged drought, the fires have burned over 22,000 hectares, destroying homes, infrastructure, and small farmers' livelihoods. 

Hundreds of farmers – among them many indigenous Mapuche people – have lost their crops fodder, and pasture for their animals, impacting not only this season but the next. 

President Gabriel Boric declared a state of emergency in the central regions of Maule and Ñuble. 
A total of 82 fires have been recorded, with 8 still active, and 4 under observation. The situation in La Araucanía and surrounding regions remains critical.

Initial assessments indicate that around 44 people may be affected, with one confirmed fatality and more than 76 displaced.

Wildfires in central and southern Chile raged for a third day, killing at least 20, scorching thousands of acres of forest and wiping out entire towns. 

Chilean President Gabriel Boric declared a state of catastrophe in the country’s central Biobio region and the neighbouring Nuble region, around 500km (300 miles) south of Santiago, the capital.

Fanned by warm temperatures and strong winds at the height of the southern hemisphere summer, the blazes started in the Nuble and Biobio regions and have since ripped through the area.

Around 1,000 homes have been destroyed or damaged, officials said.
Temperatures topped 38 degrees Celsius.

A volunteer firefighter and a Chilean forestry official have been formally accused by prosecutors of involvement in setting wildfires that engulfed central Chile this past February, killing over 130 people.

Implicated so far is volunteer firefighter Francisco Ignacio Mondaca, along with Francisco Pinto, an official from Chile's National Forestry Corporation (CONAF), part of the Agriculture ministry that is responsible for preventing forest fires.

Authorities say Mondaca, the firefighter, carried out the plot while citing the CONAF official as the mastermind behind it.

Prosecutors said they had access to evidence that shows Moncada and Pinto acted deliberately and that they had knowledge about the optimal weather conditions to start fires. 

Officials found that in each of the four places where fires first broke out on Feb. 2, they also found devices made of cigarettes and matches that started them.

The judge gave authorities six months to finish the investigation, saying that more work had to be done on the cases of missing victims and each suspect's cell phone, according to a post on Valparaiso's prosecutor office's X account. 

Prosecutor Osvaldo Ossandon said authorities were able to link Mondaca to six previous fires that occurred in the area, according to a post on X from Valparaiso's prosecutor's office.

There were 1,127 VIIRS fire alerts reported between the 6th of March 2023 and the 4th of March 2024 considering high confidence alerts only. 

In Chile, there have been 382 VIIRS fire alerts reported so far in 2024. 

In the last 4 weeks in Chile, the region with the most significant number of fire alerts was Región Metropolitana de Santiago, with 7 fire alerts. This represents 8.4% of all alerts detected in Chile, Global Forest Watch reports.

The death toll from raging wildfires in Chile has risen to at least 112 people, with hundreds more missing, authorities have said.

President Gabriel Boric warned that casualties would rise “significantly” as forest fires continued to blaze in the central region of Valparaiso.

Authorities said 200 people were reported missing in and around the city of Viña del Mar, a popular beach resort where some of the most intense fires have raged.

Forest fires raging in central Chile have killed at least 51 people and the death toll is likely to keep climbing, authorities said on Saturday, 3 February, as emergency services battled to snuff out flames threatening urban areas.
Black smoke billowed into the sky over many parts of the Valparaiso region, home to nearly one million inhabitants in central Chile, while firefighters using helicopters and trucks struggled to quell the fires.

Areas around the coastal tourist city of Vina del Mar have been some of the hardest hit and rescue teams were struggling to reach all the affected areas, Chilean authorities said.

By early February, the fires had developed into a large outbreak of at least 406 individual fires, several dozen of which were classified as "red alert fires". The fires burned more than 430,000 hectares (1,100,000 acres) and resulted in the loss of 24 lives, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency in multiple regions of the country.

A series of wildfires began in Chile. 
The Ñuble region has maintained a preventive early warning due to the threat of forest fires as a result of high temperatures. 

The fires coincided with an unprecedented heat wave in the south of the country, with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius in southern areas.

René Garreaud from the University of Chile said the extremely high temperatures are driven by warm, naturally recurring Puelche winds blowing from the east, superimposed on a warmer climate. 

The interior minister, Manuel Monsalve, confirmed that 17 people had been arrested for possibly starting fires by such activities as welding or burning wool.

This year has been a year with significant rains this had contributed to the growth of grass that could produce fires in the dry season. 

Central and southern Chile had been hit by very large fires, with eleven deaths and 467,000 hectares burnt.

Chile has been suffering from a megadrought since 2010 – the worst for a thousand years. 
These drought conditions exacerbate summer fires because the vegetation becomes more flammable.

The military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet signed a decree designed to subsidize the intensive forestry industry and the monoculture of eucalyptus - a highly inflammable species - in the center and south of the country.