Besikó fire, 14 April 2026 Besikó
The fire started on 14 April 2026 in Besikó, Panama, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,364 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
Number 3 in Panama in 2026, of 6.
- Burnt area
- 1,364ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 14 Apr 2026 – 21 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 14 Apr
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 34
- in a single hotspot: 32 MW
- Danger at start
- 4
- Very low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 44MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.3 mm on 22 Apr.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
1,373 ha reached on 16 Apr1.8 %
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 Apr | 29.5 °C | 63 % | 36 km/h | 0.8 mm | Very low 4 |
| 17 Apr | 30.5 °C | 56 % | 34 km/h | 1.4 mm | Very low 3 |
| 18 Apr | 31.2 °C | 49 % | 27 km/h | 0.3 mm | Low 7 |
| 19 Apr | 30.4 °C | 50 % | 31 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 8 |
| 20 Apr | 31.1 °C | 50 % | 37 km/h | 0.4 mm | Low 9 |
| 21 Apr | 30.0 °C | 54 % | 39 km/h | 1.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 22 Apr after | 30.1 °C | 62 % | 33 km/h | 5.3 mm | Very low 1 |
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 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 23 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 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 · 34Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 1,832 haBesikó16 April 2026 · 9 days · 8 km away
- 1,026 haSan LorenzoMarch 2026 · 4 days · 28 km away
- 1,003 haSan LorenzoMarch 2016 · 3 days · 29 km away
- 1,060 haSan Lorenzo15 March 2020 · 6 days · 30 km away
- 1,044 haDavidMarch 2019 · 3 days · 30 km away
- 1,370 haSan Lorenzo20 March 2020 · 4 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Besikó fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 April 2026 to 21 April 2026 (8 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 April 2026 to 21 April 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,364 hectares (13.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Besikó (1,373 ha, 1.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.2 °C, humidity dropped to 49 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 9, class Low.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Panama (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: 911 · 103
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 International (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.