Canchis fire, August 2024 Canchis, Canas
The fire started on 24 August 2024 in Canchis, Peru, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,270 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 34th largest in Cusco since 2016 (of 60 with a page). Number 45 in Peru in 2024, of 71.
The power measured by the satellite is low (22.0 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
- 1,270ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 24 Aug 2024 – 25 Aug 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- provinces
- Started on
- 24 Aug
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 33
- in a single hotspot: 22 MW
- Danger at start
- 30
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 277MW
- 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 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 2 Sept.
This area had burned before
39% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 497 ha in 2016.
What happened to each town
-
1,270 ha reached on 24 Aug0.3 %
-
Canas 8,960 inhabitants8 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Aug | 18.7 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 30 |
| 25 Aug | 18.6 °C | 44 % | 39 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 26 Aug after | 19.8 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 24 |
| 27 Aug after | 19.8 °C | 23 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 28 Aug after | 19.1 °C | 23 % | 42 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 28 |
| 29 Aug after | 19.7 °C | 27 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 30 Aug after | 19.2 °C | 28 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 31 Aug after | 18.2 °C | 28 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 1 Sept after | 15.7 °C | 38 % | 58 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 29 |
| 2 Sept after | 16.6 °C | 37 % | 39 km/h | 1.3 mm | Moderate 12 |
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 28 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 15 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 33Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 1,915 haCanchisAugust 2019 · 4 days · 15 km away
- 1,889 haAcomayoOctober 2022 · 3 days · 17 km away
- 4,553 haCanchis2 October 2026 · 6 days · 19 km away
- 1,532 haChumbivilcas15 October 2026 · 1 day · 27 km away
- 1,493 haCanchis8 October 2026 · 2 days · 34 km away
- 2,264 haQuispicanchiJuly 2026 · 6 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Canchis fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 August 2024 and 25 August 2024: 2 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 1,270 hectares (12.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Canchis (1,270 ha, 0.3 %); Canas (8 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 18.7 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Peru (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: 116 · 105
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 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.