How long did the Santarém fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 7 September 2026 to 23 October 2026 (47 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 September 2026 to 23 October 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 175,569 hectares (1,755.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 4 municipalities: Santarém (99,074 ha, 5.5 %); Uruará (36,265 ha, 3.3 %); Mojuí dos Campos (31,142 ha, 6.2 %); Prainha (10,282 ha, 0.7 %).

Is the Santarém fire still active?

No fire detections since 23 Oct 2026, 17:43 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 39 % and gusts hit 37 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 Brazil (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

BR · Brazil · 2026-09-07 → 2026-10-23

Santarém fire, September 2026 Santarém, Uruará, Mojuí dos Campos

Dying down · last detection 23 Oct 2026, 17:43 UTC

The fire started on 7 September 2026 in Santarém, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 47 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 175,569 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

It is the 5th largest in Pará since 2016 (of 1096 with a page). The largest in Brazil in 2026, of 749.

Is it still active?

No detections since 23 Oct 2026, 17:43 UTC. That usually means no flame is visible from space any more, although hotspots may remain. Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.

Burnt area: 175,569ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 47days; 7 Sept 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 4; municipalities
Started on: 7 Sept; 2026
Heat detections: 8,564; in a single hotspot: 501 MW
Danger at start: 29; High · FWI index
Energy released: 74.7GW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Oct 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Sept23 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

7810111213141516171819212223242526272829301234567891011121314151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

36°high

37km/h · peak gust

39%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

5% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,629 ha in 2017, 2,110 ha in 2022, 7,847 ha in 2023, 2,266 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,694 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Santarém 331,942 inhabitants where it started

99,074 ha reached on 7 Sept

5.5 %
Uruará 43,558 inhabitants

36,265 ha reached on 18 Sept

3.3 %
Mojuí dos Campos 23,501 inhabitants

31,142 ha reached on 30 Sept

6.2 %
Prainha 35,577 inhabitants

10,282 ha reached on 18 Sept

0.7 %

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	Danger (FWI)
30 Sept	35.8 °C	39 %	32 km/h	High 29
1 Oct	34.8 °C	45 %	37 km/h	High 32
2 Oct	35.0 °C	41 %	35 km/h	High 30

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 31 Aug 2026

After · 23 Oct 2026

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 29 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 36 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak36 µg/m³

Days over the guideline1 day

PM1038 µg/m³

Optical depth0.40

WHO 15

2829301

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 · 8,564Every 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 Brazil ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Santarém fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 7 September 2026 to 23 October 2026 (47 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 September 2026 to 23 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 175,569 hectares (1,755.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 4 municipalities: Santarém (99,074 ha, 5.5 %); Uruará (36,265 ha, 3.3 %); Mojuí dos Campos (31,142 ha, 6.2 %); Prainha (10,282 ha, 0.7 %).
Is the Santarém fire still active?: No fire detections since 23 Oct 2026, 17:43 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 39 % and gusts hit 37 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 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

INPE · Programa Queimadas ↗
IBAMA · Prevfogo ↗

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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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 193.

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.