Escuintla fire, March 2019 Escuintla, San Vicente Pacaya
The fire started on 27 March 2019 in Escuintla, Guatemala, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,303 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 11th largest in Escuintla since 2016 (of 17 with a page). Number 7 in Guatemala in 2019, of 24.
- Burnt area
- 1,303ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 27 Mar 2019 – 28 Mar 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 27 Mar
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 26
- in a single hotspot: 80 MW
- Danger at start
- 24
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 353MW
- 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 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 31 Mar.
This area had burned before
42% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 549 ha in 2016, 158 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 549 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
1,067 ha reached on 27 Mar1.9 %
-
244 ha reached on 27 Mar1.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Mar | 34.4 °C | 30 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 28 Mar | 32.7 °C | 41 % | 38 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 29 Mar after | 31.3 °C | 47 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 30 Mar after | 31.0 °C | 52 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 31 Mar after | 30.8 °C | 59 % | 37 km/h | 1.6 mm | Low 9 |
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.
Detections table · 26Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 2,322 haEscuintla8 February 2016 · 7 days · 3 km away
- 1,866 haEscuintlaJanuary 2018 · 7 days · 3 km away
- 1,626 haGuanagazapaFebruary 2022 · 2 days · 14 km away
- 2,277 haEscuintla31 January 2026 · 7 days · 18 km away
- 4,376 haYepocapaFebruary 2017 · 9 days · 29 km away
- 3,512 haTaxiscoFebruary 2026 · 6 days · 29 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Escuintla fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 March 2019 and 28 March 2019: 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 1,303 hectares (13.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Escuintla (1,067 ha, 1.9 %); San Vicente Pacaya (244 ha, 1.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.4 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, 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
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.