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BR · Brazil · –

Iracema fire, 8 March 2024 Iracema, Mucajaí

Out · last detection 24 Mar 2024, 05:08 UTC

The fire started on 8 March 2024 in Iracema, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,978 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 27th largest in Roraima since 2016 (of 111 with a page). Number 319 in Brazil in 2024, of 1301.

Burnt area
9,978ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
8 Mar 2024 – 24 Mar 2024
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
8 Mar
2024
Heat detections
583
in a single hotspot: 92 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Average daily power
270MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Mar24 Mar
24 Mar 2024

How it evolved, day by day

8 Mar 2024 · 335 MW · 19 9 Mar 2024 · 164 MW · 30 10 Mar 2024 · 169 MW · 16 11 Mar 2024 · 99 MW · 10 12 Mar 2024 · 39 MW · 24 13 Mar 2024 · 38 MW · 8 14 Mar 2024 · 388 MW · 35 15 Mar 2024 · 734 MW · 57 16 Mar 2024 · 148 MW · 33 18 Mar 2024 · 116 MW · 17 19 Mar 2024 · 53 MW · 10 20 Mar 2024 · 169 MW · 17 21 Mar 2024 · 779 MW · 83 22 Mar 2024 · 706 MW · 90 23 Mar 2024 · 347 MW · 116 24 Mar 2024 · 33 MW · 18
8 Mar 12 Mar 16 Mar 21 Mar

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
56km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.4 mm on 28 Mar.

This area had burned before

78% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,847 ha in 2016, 1,021 ha in 2018, 6,986 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,804 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 6.3% of the area of London (100 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. Iracema where it started
    7,731 ha reached on 8 Mar
    0.6 %
  2. Mucajaí 18,095 inhabitants
    2,390 ha reached on 8 Mar
    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 area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (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 Mar 34.4 °C 44 % 40 km/h 0.6 mm High 33
9 Mar 35.8 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.3 mm High 28
10 Mar 36.8 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
11 Mar 37.5 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Mar 34.8 °C 42 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Mar 37.2 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Mar 38.3 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Mar 38.5 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 41
16 Mar 33.4 °C 46 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Mar 35.3 °C 40 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 40
18 Mar 37.1 °C 31 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Mar 36.4 °C 37 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Mar 37.4 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Mar 37.9 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Mar 37.5 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Mar 36.5 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Mar 34.4 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Mar after 36.2 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
26 Mar after 36.1 °C 38 % 23 km/h 0.4 mm High 32
27 Mar after 38.6 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
28 Mar after 32.5 °C 50 % 27 km/h 3.4 mm Moderate 20

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 33.2, a minimum humidity of 44% and rain the day before. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 21.

FWI at the start 33.2
Minimum humidity 44 %
Days without rain 0
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Mucajaí fire, February 2016
11,838 ha 11 days FWI 33.3 Min. humidity 39 % 26 km away, in 2016

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 11.2 mm on 13 Mar.

What happened to them

11 days
median duration
4,597 ha
median area
19 %
went past 10,000 ha
6.0 mm
rain at the end (median; 20 of 21 had it)

It was 2.2 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 17 days, against 11 days.

Only 4 of its 21 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 1 of 21, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 6.0 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

3.4 mmfirst rain
28 Mar4 days after it ended
56km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 24 Mar, and on 28 Mar 3.4 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 20 of 21, with a median of 6.0 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Mar 2024
After · 31 Mar 2024

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 25 March 2024 the air beside the fire reached 211 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 137: 9.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak211 µg/m³
Days over the guideline15 days
PM10302 µg/m³
Optical depth3.90
6 Mar11 Mar16 Mar21 Mar26 Mar
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 · 583Every 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 Iracema fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 March 2024 and 24 March 2024: 17 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 9,978 hectares (99.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Iracema (7,731 ha, 0.6 %); Mucajaí (2,390 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 21. Their median duration was 11 days and their median area 4,597 ha; 19 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 4 of its 21 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 1 of 21, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 6.0 mm.

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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 583 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.