How long did the Pindal fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 December 2025 and 20 December 2025: 6 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 1,120 hectares (11.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pindal (1,021 ha, 5.0 %); Zapotillo (106 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 14, class Moderate.

Where does this data come from?

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

EC · Ecuador · 2025-12-15 → 2025-12-20

Pindal fire, December 2025 Pindal, Zapotillo

Out · last detection 20 Dec 2025, 19:09 UTC

The fire started on 15 December 2025 in Pindal, Ecuador, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,120 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 18th largest in Loja since 2016 (of 21 with a page). Number 24 in Ecuador in 2025, of 37.

The power measured by the satellite is low (15.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area: 1,120ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 6days; 15 Dec 2025 – 20 Dec 2025
Municipalities hit: 2; cantons
Started on: 15 Dec; 2025
Heat detections: 29; in a single hotspot: 16 MW
Danger at start: 13; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 146MW; sum of detected power

Play back 20 Dec 2025

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Dec20 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

15161820

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

The weather it burned in

31°high

40km/h · peak gust

34%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

56% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 650 ha in 2019.

650 ha Pindal fire, September 2019 17,856 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Pindal where it started

1,021 ha reached on 10 Dec

5.0 %
Zapotillo

106 ha reached on 11 Dec

0.1 %

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)
15 Dec	29.9 °C	43 %	40 km/h	0.4 mm	Moderate 13
16 Dec	27.1 °C	47 %	32 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 12
17 Dec	30.0 °C	36 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
18 Dec	27.8 °C	42 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
19 Dec	30.5 °C	36 %	38 km/h	1.9 mm	Low 8
20 Dec	31.4 °C	34 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
21 Dec after	29.7 °C	37 %	35 km/h	0.8 mm	Moderate 13
22 Dec after	29.8 °C	40 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
23 Dec after	30.7 °C	37 %	37 km/h	0.8 mm	Moderate 14
24 Dec after	30.1 °C	37 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
25 Dec after	31.6 °C	28 %	35 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 19
26 Dec after	31.4 °C	33 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
27 Dec after	30.3 °C	36 %	38 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 21
28 Dec after	30.7 °C	37 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
29 Dec after	30.0 °C	40 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 21
30 Dec after	28.3 °C	46 %	36 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 8 Dec 2025

After · 27 Dec 2025

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 21 December 2025 the air beside the fire reached 28 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 19: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak28 µg/m³

Days over the guideline5 days

PM1030 µg/m³

Optical depth0.66

WHO 15

891011121314151617181920212223

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 · 29Every 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 Ecuador ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Pindal fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 December 2025 and 20 December 2025: 6 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 1,120 hectares (11.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pindal (1,021 ha, 5.0 %); Zapotillo (106 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 14, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?: From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Ecuador (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: 911

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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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 911.

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