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Gilbués fire, 8 September 2026 Gilbués, Santa Filomena

Out · last detection 23 Sept 2026, 17:39 UTC

The fire started on 8 September 2026 in Gilbués, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,044 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 61th largest in Piaui since 2016 (of 804 with a page). Number 74 in Brazil in 2026, of 751.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Gilbués · 2022Gilbués · 2025Santa Filomena · 2026Santa Filomena · 2025

Burnt area
14,044ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
8 Sept 2026 – 24 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
8 Sept
2026
Heat detections
296
in a single hotspot: 120 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
197MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Sept24 Sept
23 Sept 2026

How it evolved, day by day

8 Sept 2026 · 27 MW · 4 9 Sept 2026 · 12 MW · 2 10 Sept 2026 · 4 MW · 2 11 Sept 2026 · 21 MW · 6 12 Sept 2026 · 73 MW · 13 13 Sept 2026 · 10 MW · 2 14 Sept 2026 · 116 MW · 23 15 Sept 2026 · 347 MW · 18 16 Sept 2026 · 858 MW · 31 17 Sept 2026 · 124 MW · 17 18 Sept 2026 · 176 MW · 33 19 Sept 2026 · 218 MW · 33 20 Sept 2026 · 195 MW · 21 21 Sept 2026 · 859 MW · 72 22 Sept 2026 · 82 MW · 14 23 Sept 2026 · 36 MW · 5
8 Sept 11 Sept 14 Sept 17 Sept 20 Sept 21 Sept 23 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

39°high
51km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

57% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,022 ha in 2017, 904 ha in 2018, 1,044 ha in 2019, 1,150 ha in 2020, 515 ha in 2021, 5,061 ha in 2022, 1,950 ha in 2023, 826 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,997 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 8.9% of the area of London (140 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. Gilbués 10,892 inhabitants where it started
    12,767 ha reached on 8 Sept
    3.6 %
  2. Santa Filomena 6,087 inhabitants
    1,366 ha reached on 13 Sept
    0.3 %

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 area1.7 ha
Residents≈ 40

Inside the perimeter there were about 1.7 hectares of built-up land and about 40 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)
8 Sept 34.0 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 Sept 36.0 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Sept 35.4 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Sept 35.9 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Sept 36.5 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
13 Sept 37.2 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
14 Sept 37.5 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Sept 37.5 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Sept 39.0 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 Sept 36.8 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
18 Sept 35.6 °C 23 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
19 Sept 35.8 °C 18 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
20 Sept 34.1 °C 28 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Sept 37.0 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Sept 37.5 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Sept 38.6 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Sept 36.7 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Sept after 33.9 °C 32 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
26 Sept after 35.9 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Sept after 37.8 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Sept after 38.2 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Sept after 37.8 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Sept after 36.8 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Oct after 38.8 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Oct after 32.2 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.4 mm High 35
3 Oct after 32.9 °C 46 % 25 km/h 0.3 mm High 28
4 Oct after 35.8 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Sept 2026
After · 1 Oct 2026

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 24 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 60 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 39: 2.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak60 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM1062 µg/m³
Optical depth0.77
67891011121314151617181920212223242526272829301
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 · 296Every 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 Gilbués fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 8 September 2026 to 24 September 2026 (17 days). The perimeter dates it from 8 September 2026 to 23 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 14,044 hectares (140.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Gilbués (12,767 ha, 3.6 %); Santa Filomena (1,366 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.0 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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 ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 23 September 2026 → 24 September 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?

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 8 September 2026 to 23 September 2026. 296 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.