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Caxias fire, 15 September 2025 São João do Soter, Caxias

Out · last detection 10 Oct 2025, 16:17 UTC

The fire started on 15 September 2025 in Caxias, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 29 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,071 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 132th largest in Maranhão since 2016 (of 608 with a page). Number 203 in Brazil in 2025, of 714.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Parnarama · 2016Parnarama · 2016

Burnt area
7,071ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
29days
15 Sept 2025 – 13 Oct 2025
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
15 Sept
2025
Heat detections
223
in a single hotspot: 44 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Average daily power
135MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Sept13 Oct
10 Oct 2025

How it evolved, day by day

18 Sept 2025 · 63 MW · 5 23 Sept 2025 · 9 MW · 2 24 Sept 2025 · 147 MW · 17 25 Sept 2025 · 23 MW · 1 26 Sept 2025 · 220 MW · 12 27 Sept 2025 · 345 MW · 41 28 Sept 2025 · 535 MW · 47 29 Sept 2025 · 231 MW · 29 30 Sept 2025 · 138 MW · 15 1 Oct 2025 · 268 MW · 20 2 Oct 2025 · 18 MW · 5 3 Oct 2025 · 37 MW · 6 4 Oct 2025 · 80 MW · 12 5 Oct 2025 · 30 MW · 7 7 Oct 2025 · 5 MW · 3 10 Oct 2025 · 7 MW · 1
18 Sept 25 Sept 28 Sept 1 Oct 4 Oct 10 Oct

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
39km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 32 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 18.6 mm on 21 Oct.

This area had burned before

4% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 286 ha in 2017.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 4.5% of the area of London (71 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

  1. São João do Soter 16,889 inhabitants
    3,739 ha reached on 26 Sept
    2.6 %
  2. Caxias 156,973 inhabitants where it started
    3,381 ha reached on 18 Sept
    0.6 %

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 area0.51 ha
Residents≈ 60

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.51 hectares of built-up land and about 60 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)
15 Sept 36.8 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Sept 36.7 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Sept 36.6 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Sept 36.8 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Sept 36.6 °C 32 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
20 Sept 35.9 °C 35 % 23 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
21 Sept 36.0 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
22 Sept 34.7 °C 43 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Sept 37.4 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Sept 36.7 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Sept 36.7 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Sept 36.5 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Sept 36.2 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Sept 35.5 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Sept 35.6 °C 36 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
30 Sept 36.7 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Oct 36.1 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
2 Oct 36.5 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
3 Oct 35.9 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Oct 36.2 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Oct 36.6 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
6 Oct 37.2 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Oct 36.5 °C 36 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
8 Oct 37.4 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 Oct 36.3 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
10 Oct 37.6 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
11 Oct 35.7 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
12 Oct 36.3 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Oct 36.4 °C 38 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
14 Oct after 36.9 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Oct after 37.4 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
16 Oct after 37.1 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Oct after 36.7 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Oct after 36.0 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Oct after 35.4 °C 42 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
20 Oct after 35.1 °C 47 % 30 km/h 0.5 mm High 32
21 Oct after 28.3 °C 70 % 35 km/h 18.6 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Sept 2025
After · 20 Oct 2025

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 1 October 2025 the air beside the fire reached 73 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 37: 2.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak73 µg/m³
Days over the guideline14 days
PM1074 µg/m³
Optical depth0.92
161718192021222324252627282930123456789
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 · 223Every 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 Caxias fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 15 September 2025 to 13 October 2025 (29 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 September 2025 to 6 October 2025.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,071 hectares (70.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: São João do Soter (3,739 ha, 2.6 %); Caxias (3,381 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 6 October 2025 → 13 October 2025.
  2. Start date: 21 September 2025 → 15 September 2025.

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?

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 21 September 2025 to 6 October 2025. 223 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.