How long did the El Estor fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 25 April 2024 to 29 May 2024 (35 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 May 2024 to 25 May 2024.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,161 hectares (71.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: El Estor (6,823 ha, 4.3 %); Lívingston (386 ha, 0.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, class High.

Where does this data come from?

From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Guatemala (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

GT · Guatemala · 2024-04-25 → 2024-05-29

El Estor fire, 25 April 2024 El Estor, Lívingston

Out · last detection 29 May 2024, 18:58 UTC

The fire started on 25 April 2024 in El Estor, Guatemala, and satellites saw it burning for 35 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,161 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Izabal since 2016 (of 16 with a page). The largest in Guatemala in 2024, of 70.

Compare with…

Suggestions: El Estor · 2018 Chahal · 2024 El Estor · 2024 El Estor · 2024

Burnt area: 7,161ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 35days; 25 Apr 2024 – 29 May 2024
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 25 Apr; 2024
Heat detections: 479; in a single hotspot: 58 MW
Danger at start: 4; Very low · FWI index
Average daily power: 101MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Apr29 May

Play back 29 May 2024

How it evolved, day by day

27 Apr 2 May 8 May 13 May 17 May 18 May 23 May 28 May

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

45km/h · peak gust

31%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 30 May.

This area had burned before

14% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,020 ha in 2018.

1,020 ha El Estor fire, May 2018 1,554 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 4.5% of the area of London (72 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

El Estor 15,842 inhabitants where it started

6,823 ha reached on 27 Apr

4.3 %
Lívingston 61,580 inhabitants

386 ha reached on 27 Apr

0.2 %

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 area0.28 ha

Residents≈ 60

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.28 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)
25 Apr	27.8 °C	55 %	38 km/h	1.9 mm	Very low 4
26 Apr	29.5 °C	40 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
27 Apr	30.2 °C	53 %	37 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 14
28 Apr	31.4 °C	47 %	35 km/h	0.8 mm	Moderate 13
29 Apr	33.5 °C	40 %	30 km/h	1.0 mm	Moderate 15
30 Apr	32.9 °C	44 %	29 km/h	2.6 mm	Low 7
1 May	31.1 °C	48 %	37 km/h	1.1 mm	Low 10
2 May	31.0 °C	42 %	35 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 16
3 May	30.6 °C	42 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
4 May	31.1 °C	39 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
5 May	32.3 °C	37 %	36 km/h	0.1 mm	High 22
6 May	32.7 °C	44 %	34 km/h	0.1 mm	High 23
7 May	33.0 °C	38 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
8 May	32.9 °C	42 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
9 May	33.4 °C	39 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
10 May	33.6 °C	39 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
11 May	32.0 °C	48 %	32 km/h	0.1 mm	High 23
12 May	32.9 °C	45 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
13 May	34.2 °C	36 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
14 May	34.4 °C	36 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
15 May	33.6 °C	38 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
16 May	32.2 °C	41 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
17 May	35.1 °C	31 %	41 km/h	0.6 mm	High 31
18 May	34.1 °C	36 %	31 km/h	0.6 mm	High 28
19 May	32.7 °C	37 %	27 km/h	3.2 mm	Low 10
20 May	32.2 °C	41 %	32 km/h	2.5 mm	Low 10
21 May	32.9 °C	40 %	37 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 21
22 May	31.4 °C	45 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
23 May	31.8 °C	40 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
24 May	34.2 °C	35 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
25 May	34.4 °C	36 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
26 May	35.0 °C	34 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
27 May	34.3 °C	39 %	36 km/h	0.1 mm	High 30
28 May	32.7 °C	45 %	40 km/h	1.5 mm	Moderate 18
29 May	30.6 °C	48 %	42 km/h	1.5 mm	Moderate 15
30 May after	29.8 °C	50 %	43 km/h	1.4 mm	Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 18 Apr 2024

After · 5 Jun 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 16 May 2024 the air beside the fire reached 105 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 73: 4.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak105 µg/m³

Days over the guideline25 days

PM10151 µg/m³

Optical depth2.34

WHO 15

3012345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728

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 · 479Every 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 Guatemala ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the El Estor fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 25 April 2024 to 29 May 2024 (35 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 May 2024 to 25 May 2024.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,161 hectares (71.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: El Estor (6,823 ha, 4.3 %); Lívingston (386 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, class High.
Where does this data come from?: From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Guatemala (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: 122 · 123 · 1566 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

CONRED ↗
INAB · Instituto Nacional de Bosques ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

25 October 2026 Last day with fire: 25 May 2024 → 29 May 2024.
25 October 2026 Start date: 2 May 2024 → 25 April 2024.

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 122 · 123 · 1566.

How we know this

Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 2 May 2024 to 25 May 2024. 479 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