How long did the Buritizal fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 19 August 2024 to 10 September 2024 (23 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 August 2024 to 10 September 2024.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 14,458 hectares (144.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Pedregulho (7,048 ha, 9.8 %); Igarapava (4,015 ha, 8.5 %); Buritizal (3,470 ha, 13 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.

BR · Brazil · 2024-08-19 → 2024-09-10

Buritizal fire, August 2024 Pedregulho, Igarapava, Buritizal

Out · last detection 10 Sept 2024, 16:15 UTC

The fire started on 19 August 2024 in Buritizal, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,458 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 6th largest in São Paulo since 2016 (of 97 with a page). Number 202 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Pedregulho · 2017 Aramina · 2024 Ituverava · 2021 Ituverava · 2024

Burnt area: 14,458ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 23days; 19 Aug 2024 – 10 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit: 3; municipalities
Started on: 19 Aug; 2024
Heat detections: 835; in a single hotspot: 212 MW
Danger at start: 38; High · FWI index
Average daily power: 446MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Aug10 Sept

Play back 10 Sept 2024

How it evolved, day by day

19 Aug 23 Aug 24 Aug 27 Aug 30 Aug 2 Sept 5 Sept 8 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

35°high

53km/h · peak gust

12%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,344 ha in 2017, 2,481 ha in 2020.

3,344 ha Pedregulho fire, September 2017 3,990 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 9.1% of the area of London (145 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

Pedregulho 15,525 inhabitants

7,048 ha reached on 23 Aug

9.8 %
Igarapava 26,212 inhabitants

4,015 ha reached on 21 Aug

8.5 %
Buritizal 4,356 inhabitants where it started

3,470 ha reached on 19 Aug

13 %

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 area6.1 ha

Residents≈ 200

Inside the perimeter there were about 6.1 hectares of built-up land and about 200 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)

Day	High	Min. humidity	Peak gust	Rain	Danger (FWI)
19 Aug	32.0 °C	15 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
20 Aug	32.7 °C	16 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
21 Aug	32.3 °C	17 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
22 Aug	31.5 °C	17 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
23 Aug	32.8 °C	17 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
24 Aug	32.6 °C	20 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
25 Aug	22.9 °C	42 %	41 km/h	0.8 mm	High 24
26 Aug	23.1 °C	42 %	27 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 20
27 Aug	29.0 °C	20 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
28 Aug	30.4 °C	26 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
29 Aug	30.5 °C	18 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
30 Aug	30.8 °C	17 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
31 Aug	31.9 °C	15 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
1 Sept	33.1 °C	12 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
2 Sept	33.3 °C	12 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
3 Sept	34.2 °C	12 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
4 Sept	34.6 °C	12 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
5 Sept	35.0 °C	12 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
6 Sept	34.7 °C	16 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
7 Sept	34.0 °C	18 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
8 Sept	33.4 °C	18 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
9 Sept	32.9 °C	14 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
10 Sept	32.7 °C	13 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
11 Sept after	32.6 °C	16 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
12 Sept after	32.7 °C	15 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
13 Sept after	33.1 °C	18 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
14 Sept after	32.8 °C	19 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
15 Sept after	33.5 °C	19 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
16 Sept after	27.4 °C	29 %	32 km/h	0.3 mm	Very high 38
17 Sept after	31.6 °C	27 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
18 Sept after	32.5 °C	28 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
19 Sept after	33.0 °C	26 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
20 Sept after	33.6 °C	24 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 12 Aug 2024

After · 17 Sept 2024

Before After

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 25 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 94 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 66: 4.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak94 µg/m³

Days over the guideline12 days

PM10134 µg/m³

Optical depth1.89

WHO 15

17181920212223242526272829303112345678910111213

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 · 835Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Brazil ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Buritizal fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 19 August 2024 to 10 September 2024 (23 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 August 2024 to 10 September 2024.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 14,458 hectares (144.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Pedregulho (7,048 ha, 9.8 %); Igarapava (4,015 ha, 8.5 %); Buritizal (3,470 ha, 13 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.

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 ›

INPE · Programa Queimadas ↗
IBAMA · Prevfogo ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 22 August 2024 to 10 September 2024. 835 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.

Where it burned