San Ignacio fire, 5 April 2019 San Ignacio, El Porvenir
The fire started on 5 April 2019 in San Ignacio, Honduras, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,516 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 82th largest in Francisco Morazán since 2016 (of 177 with a page). Number 44 in Honduras in 2019, of 93.
The power measured by the satellite is low (17.1 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
- 1,516ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 5 Apr 2019 – 8 Apr 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 5 Apr
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 74
- in a single hotspot: 17 MW
- Danger at start
- 25
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 389MW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.9 mm on 9 Apr.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 322 ha in 2016, 396 ha in 2017, 1,304 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,525 ha that had burned before.
- 1,304 ha San Ignacio fire, March 2018 6,368 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 389 ha San Ignacio fire, March 2017 2,300 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 322 ha San Ignacio fire, April 2016 1,298 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7 ha El Porvenir fire, April 2017 2,031 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
San Ignacio where it started1,298 ha reached on 5 Apr3.9 %
-
227 ha reached on 6 Apr0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Apr | 30.6 °C | 37 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 6 Apr | 32.3 °C | 26 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 7 Apr | 30.8 °C | 37 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 8 Apr | 31.7 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 9 Apr after | 32.1 °C | 36 % | 24 km/h | 3.9 mm | Low 7 |
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 · 74Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,368 haSan IgnacioMarch 2018 · 21 days · 5 km away
- 7,183 haCedros15 March 2020 · 38 days · 18 km away
- 22,862 haCedros21 March 2020 · 41 days · 19 km away
- 7,933 haCedros23 March 2020 · 39 days · 22 km away
- 63,428 haOrica26 March 2020 · 36 days · 24 km away
- 6,933 haGuaimaca14 May 2026 · 10 days · 28 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the San Ignacio fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 April 2019 and 8 April 2019: 4 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 1,516 hectares (15.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: San Ignacio (1,298 ha, 3.9 %); El Porvenir (227 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Honduras (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
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 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). 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.