San Patricio
General information
- Category
- Wildfire
- Fire classification
- Convective plume
- Country
- Chile
- Year
- 2025
© EWED
© EWED
The San Patricio fire started in a forested area with poor accessibility, dense vegetation and complex terrain, which made extinguishing efforts difficult. During the first 2 hours, the fire spread slowly and with low intensity, but in the late afternoon, it increased in intensity, with torching and spot fires, which allowed the fire to spread rapidly. One of these spot fire fell on the opposite slope, which was completely inaccessible, but it hardly moved. As dusk fell, the head of the fire entered a steep descent, slowing its speed. During the night, the fire remained almost stable due to improved weather conditions. The following day was complex due to weather conditions, both on the surface and in the atmosphere, with significant instability expected. Until midday, there was practically no activity, but during the afternoon, the fire spot on the other side and the right flank of the main fire reignited, generating a topographical run with a significant convective column. As a result of the spread, the fire became anchored at the top of the mountain range that was very complex in terms of orography and with very marked elevations, which made extinguishing tasks difficult over the following days. From that moment on, the fire moved topographically most of the time, with some episodes of high intensity when it was fully aligned.
Fire behaviour and surface observations
| Start location lat | -36.818355 deg N |
| Start location lon | -71.586075 deg E |
| Start location name | San Patricio |
| Start hour | 14/02/2025 00:00:00 (UTC) |
| Surface affected | 1927 ha |
| Fire behavior | Surface, high intensity |
| Torching head | 40 % |
| Torching flanks | 5 % |
| Flame length mean head | 2 m |
| Flame length max head | 15 m |
| Flame length mean flanks | 1 m |
| Flame length max flanks | 5 m |
| Spotting mean | 25 m |
| Spotting max | 650 m |
| Rate of spread mean | m/h |
| Rate of spread max | 1250 m/h |
| Burn ratio mean | ha/h |
| Burn ratio max | 100 ha/h |
