Benjamín Aceval fire, 16 September 2026 Benjamín Aceval
The fire started on 16 September 2026 in Benjamín Aceval, Paraguay, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,053 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 450th largest in PRESIDENTE HAYES since 2016 (of 738 with a page). Number 40 in Paraguay in 2026, of 80.
The power measured by the satellite is low (15.3 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 2,053ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 16 Sept 2026 – 18 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 16 Sept
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 46
- in a single hotspot: 15 MW
- Danger at start
- 15
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 227MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.1 mm on 19 Sept.
This area had burned before
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 507 ha in 2016, 521 ha in 2017, 1,066 ha in 2019, 1,114 ha in 2020, 1,064 ha in 2021, 192 ha in 2022, 897 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,813 ha that had burned before.
- 1,066 ha Benjamín Aceval fire, September 2019 3,641 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,064 ha Benjamín Aceval fire, August 2021 10,019 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 460 ha Benjamín Aceval fire, September 2017 1,504 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 445 ha Benjamín Aceval fire, October 2023 10,471 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 436 ha Benjamín Aceval fire, April 2020 5,645 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 302 ha Benjamín Aceval fire, September 2020 3,651 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 19 ha Benjamín Aceval fire, October 2023 1,525 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Benjamín Aceval where it started2,060 ha0.2 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
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)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Sept | 27.7 °C | 35 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 17 Sept | 30.5 °C | 37 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 18 Sept | 28.4 °C | 58 % | 37 km/h | 2.3 mm | Very low 4 |
| 19 Sept after | 29.0 °C | 70 % | 39 km/h | 6.1 mm | Very low 0 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 18 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 93 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 28: 1.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 46Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 10,471 haBenjamín Aceval13 October 2023 · 6 days · 7 km away
- 10,019 haBenjamín Aceval18 August 2021 · 7 days · 7 km away
- 17,509 haBenjamín Aceval1 August 2020 · 11 days · 16 km away
- 12,661 haBenjamín Aceval25 August 2020 · 6 days · 24 km away
- 13,300 haBenjamín Aceval9 March 2020 · 9 days · 34 km away
- 151,199 haGeneral Jose Maria Bruguez22 September 2020 · 21 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Benjamín Aceval fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 September 2026 and 18 September 2026: 3 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 2,053 hectares (20.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Benjamín Aceval (2,060 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.5 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 15, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Paraguay (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
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: 132 · 911
Satellite cross-check
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
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 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). 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.