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Buenópolis fire, August 2026 Lassance, Buenópolis

Out · last detection 24 Aug 2026, 04:27 UTC

The fire started on 18 August 2026 in Buenópolis, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,713 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 40th largest in Minas Gerais since 2016 (of 227 with a page). Number 224 in Brazil in 2026, of 749.

Burnt area
6,713ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
18 Aug 2026 – 24 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
18 Aug
2026
Heat detections
128
in a single hotspot: 169 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Aug 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Aug24 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

18192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
48km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 27 Aug.

This area had burned before

69% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,311 ha in 2019, 859 ha in 2021, 2,887 ha in 2022, 396 ha in 2024, 44 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,626 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Lassance 7,124 inhabitants
    5,166 ha reached on 18 Aug
    1.6 %
  2. Buenópolis where it started
    1,587 ha reached on 18 Aug
    1.0 %

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)
11 Aug 27.1 °C 42 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Aug 27.4 °C 40 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
13 Aug 28.4 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
14 Aug 30.0 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
15 Aug 29.5 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Aug 27.5 °C 39 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Aug 26.1 °C 38 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Aug 26.1 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
19 Aug 28.4 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Aug 29.5 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Aug 31.0 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Aug 30.0 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
23 Aug 28.6 °C 38 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Aug 28.2 °C 40 % 45 km/h 0.5 mm High 30
25 Aug after 28.8 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
26 Aug after 29.0 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
27 Aug after 25.0 °C 59 % 27 km/h 1.5 mm Low 9

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Aug 2026
After · 31 Aug 2026

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 21 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 84 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 50: 3.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak84 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1084 µg/m³
Optical depth0.39
9101112131415161718192021222324252627
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 · 128Every 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 Buenópolis fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 August 2026 and 24 August 2026: 7 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 6,713 hectares (67.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lassance (5,166 ha, 1.6 %); Buenópolis (1,587 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.0 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class Very high.
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.

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

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
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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.

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.