Wildland Fire

NASA

Fires Erupt in South-Central Chile 

Wildland fires broke out amid hot and dry conditions in south-central Chile in mid-January 2026, prompting evacuations and causing extensive damage to infrastructure. As of January 20, the spate of deadly fires had burned more than 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) in the country’s Biobío and Ñuble regions, according to Chile’s National Forestry Corporation. The MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite captured…