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BR · Brazil · –

Barreiras fire, September 2025 Angical, Barreiras

Out · last detection 3 Oct 2025, 04:12 UTC

The fire started on 8 September 2025 in Barreiras, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,446 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 42th largest in Bahia since 2016 (of 386 with a page). Number 65 in Brazil in 2025, of 526.

Burnt area
13,446ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
26days
8 Sept 2025 – 3 Oct 2025
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
8 Sept
2025
Heat detections
578
in a single hotspot: 197 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
258MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Sept3 Oct
3 Oct 2025

How it evolved, day by day

8 Sept 2025 · 17 MW · 3 10 Sept 2025 · 812 MW · 23 11 Sept 2025 · 406 MW · 46 12 Sept 2025 · 864 MW · 74 13 Sept 2025 · 430 MW · 82 14 Sept 2025 · 369 MW · 36 15 Sept 2025 · 85 MW · 23 16 Sept 2025 · 57 MW · 31 17 Sept 2025 · 174 MW · 23 18 Sept 2025 · 26 MW · 11 19 Sept 2025 · 45 MW · 22 20 Sept 2025 · 1,129 MW · 42 21 Sept 2025 · 148 MW · 51 22 Sept 2025 · 436 MW · 50 23 Sept 2025 · 55 MW · 5 24 Sept 2025 · 164 MW · 15 25 Sept 2025 · 188 MW · 32 27 Sept 2025 · 6 MW · 3 28 Sept 2025 · 3 MW · 3 2 Oct 2025 · 10 MW · 1 3 Oct 2025 · 2 MW · 2
8 Sept 14 Sept 20 Sept 24 Sept 3 Oct

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
40km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 12,636 ha in 2021.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 8.5% of the area of London (134 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Angical 13,732 inhabitants
    7,401 ha reached on 10 Sept
    4.8 %
  2. Barreiras 159,734 inhabitants where it started
    6,134 ha reached on 8 Sept
    0.8 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area1.4 ha
Residents≈ 70

Inside the perimeter there were about 1.4 hectares of built-up land and about 70 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)

Started with 60 days without rain: 55 % of the area in Brazil

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
8 Sept 35.4 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Sept 35.4 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Sept 39.0 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
11 Sept 38.1 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
12 Sept 37.8 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
13 Sept 36.6 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
14 Sept 36.8 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 Sept 36.3 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Sept 35.3 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
17 Sept 36.6 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Sept 37.0 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
19 Sept 35.5 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Sept 34.8 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Sept 36.5 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 Sept 37.4 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Sept 36.7 °C 25 % 28 km/h 1.5 mm High 33
24 Sept 36.4 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Sept 35.2 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Sept 34.0 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 Sept 34.3 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Sept 34.8 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Sept 35.9 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Sept 36.8 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
1 Oct 36.1 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Oct 36.5 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Oct 35.5 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Oct after 34.1 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
5 Oct after 35.5 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
6 Oct after 35.5 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Oct after 37.4 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Oct after 37.4 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Oct after 35.7 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Oct after 36.0 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Oct after 36.3 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Oct after 36.1 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Oct after 35.9 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 43

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 43.0, a minimum humidity of 20% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 23.

FWI at the start 43.0
Minimum humidity 20 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Formosa do Rio Preto fire, September 2024
4,654 ha 9 days FWI 43.9 Min. humidity 20 % 119 km away, in 2024

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

8 days
median duration
4,197 ha
median area
4 %
went past 10,000 ha
3.6 mm
rain at the end (median; 14 of 23 had it)

It was 3.2 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 26 days, against 8 days.

Only 1 of its 23 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 9 of 23, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.6 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
40km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 3 Oct, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 14 of 23, with a median of 3.6 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Sept 2025
After · 10 Oct 2025

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 2 October 2025 the air beside the fire reached 23 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak23 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1024 µg/m³
Optical depth0.52
6 Sept13 Sept20 Sept27 Sept4 Oct
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 · 578Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Brazil

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Barreiras fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 September 2025 and 3 October 2025: 26 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 13,446 hectares (134.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Angical (7,401 ha, 4.8 %); Barreiras (6,134 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.0 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Brazil (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 23. Their median duration was 8 days and their median area 4,197 ha; 4 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 1 of its 23 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 9 of 23, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.6 mm.

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: 193 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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?

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 193.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 578 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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 ADM2 (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.