Record-breaking heatwaves affect South America in 2025 - new large wildfires in Chile and Argentina
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Heatwaves and droughts continue to create wildfire conditions in several parts of South America, with Argentina and Chile being affected the most, according to media reports. The 2024 wildfire season was already extremely difficult in several countries throughout the continent.
According to a February 17th news article on Mongabay.com, in late January 2025, Chile faced 74 wildfires, with 11 still active, 29 contained, and 34 extinguished. Three private firefighters also reportedly lost their lives while battling the fires in the Araucanía region on Sunday, January 19.
According to The Guardian in an article on February 26, the region of Mallín Ahogado in the Comarca Andina of Argentinian Patagonia has been ravaged by large-scale wildfires. The region is well-known for its small-scale agriculture, forestry, and tourism.
Since the beginning of January, wildfires have reportedly burned over 35,000 hectares (86,500 acres) of forests, farmlands, and pine plantations. These devastating fires have destroyed homes, resulted in livestock losses, and forced hundreds of residents to evacuate. Recently, the situation has worsened with several new fires igniting on the eastern slopes of the Andes.
The situation has been made worse by strong winds and high summer temperatures, making firefighting efforts even more challenging.
One local resident died in the fires while evacuating.
Photo Credit: NASA Earth Observatory
The Magdalena Valley fire, burning within Lanín National Park, produced smoke visible in an image captured by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite on February 9, 2025. A detailed view of the smoke moving through the Magdalena Valley is depicted in another image taken on the same day by the OLI-2 (Operational Land Imager-2) on Landsat 9.
Ignited in late January, the Magdalena Valley fire had charred over 15,000 hectares (58 square miles) of Lanín National Park by February 10. This forested park, situated in Argentina, shares its border with Villarrica National Park in Chile.
86 million hectares burned in 2024
The 2024 wildfire season in South America was catastrophic with a series of very large wildfires that significantly impacted several neighbouring South American countries, including Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador and Peru.
According to satellite imaging from the Global Wildfire Information System, approximately 346,112 wildfire hotspots damaged or destroyed almost 86 million hectares (roughly 212,181,650 acres) of land throughout South America.
In Brazil alone, 37,6 million hectares (92,858,970 acres) of tropical land was burned.
In Chile, the fires in early February 2024 resulted in the deaths of 131 people. Additionally, at least 14,000 houses were affected by the fires in Viña del Mar and Quilpué. These fires are considered the deadliest in Chile's history and the most devastating disaster since the 2010 Chile earthquake.
In Bolivia, fires that started in June began to grow out of control by August and September, destroyed 4 million hectares (10 million acres) according to Wikipedia.
Mexico also severely affected
According to Mongobay.com, records from Mexico’s National Forestry Commission reveal that 2024 was one of the most damaging years for the environment also in their country. Over 1.6 million hectares (about 4 million acres) were reportedly destroyed by 8,002 fires across the 32 states of the country.
More information in these sources:
- Forests in Flames: Argentina Wildfires in Patagonia
- Chilean Super Puma Helicopter deployed to combat Argentine Patagonia wildfires
- After LA, fire crisis reaches Latin America — from Mexico to Argentina
- Wildfires Scorch Thousands of Acres as Emergency Crews Battle Flames
- Fires Rage in Patagonia - NASA Earth Observatory
- After Patagonia, Argentina's northern prairies consumed by fires - Phys.org
- Shocking Satellite Images Reveal Patagonia’s Wildfire Crisis in Unprecedented Detail