Villa Corzo fire, 4 May 2024 Villa Corzo
The fire started on 4 May 2024 in Villa Corzo, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,097 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality. According to CONAFOR, the largest of the 3 recorded fires was detected on 5 May 2024 and declared extinguished on 11 May 2024.
It is the 22th largest in Chiapas since 2016 (of 267 with a page). Number 45 in Mexico in 2024, of 289.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 5,097ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 17days
- 4 May 2024 – 20 May 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 4 May
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 269
- in a single hotspot: 112 MW
- Danger at start
- 18
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 133MW
- detected power per day, on average
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: 1.8 mm on 21 May.
This area had burned before
87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,365 ha in 2017, 4,396 ha in 2019, 91 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,451 ha that had burned before.
- 4,396 ha Villa Corzo fire, April 2019 8,571 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,365 ha Villa Corzo fire, January 2017 1,851 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 91 ha Villa Corzo fire, April 2023 6,034 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Villa Corzo where it started5,126 ha reached on 4 May1.8 %
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 2025Inside the perimeter there were about 3.2 hectares of built-up land and about 200 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
Complex of 3 fires according to CONAFOR
According to CONAFOR, 3 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 5,436 ha (the satellite measured 5,097 ha).
CONAFOR records each fire that started at a different time or place separately; the satellite sees a single burned area, so this page groups them together. The numbers on the map show where each one started.
- 1 Villa Corzo Cabeza de toro/Himalaya 3 May 2024 351 ha · extinguished on 4 May 2024 · cause: unknown
- 2 Villa Corzo Veinticuatro de febrero/ Coyote 5 May 2024 5,072 ha · extinguished on 11 May 2024 · cause: unknown
- 3 Villa Corzo Veinticuatro de febrero/ La naranja 12 May 2024 13 ha · extinguished on 13 May 2024 · cause: unknown
Total according to CONAFOR: 5,436 ha, 107 % of the 5,097 ha in the satellite perimeter.
CONAFOR (Comisión Nacional Forestal), estadística de incendios forestales en datos.gob.mx (CC BY 4.0). This is the agency’s consolidated statistic: it measures the area in its own way, which is why it can differ from the satellite.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 May | 31.6 °C | 47 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 5 May | 30.3 °C | 52 % | 40 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 6 May | 31.3 °C | 44 % | 40 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 7 May | 30.8 °C | 47 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 8 May | 30.3 °C | 44 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 9 May | 30.4 °C | 41 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 10 May | 30.3 °C | 37 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 11 May | 31.6 °C | 37 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 12 May | 31.8 °C | 39 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 13 May | 31.1 °C | 45 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 14 May | 30.3 °C | 51 % | 41 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 15 May | 29.9 °C | 49 % | 35 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 16 May | 30.0 °C | 47 % | 44 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 17 May | 29.4 °C | 50 % | 54 km/h | 2.5 mm | Low 9 |
| 18 May | 27.7 °C | 52 % | 33 km/h | 1.9 mm | Low 6 |
| 19 May | 30.6 °C | 49 % | 32 km/h | 4.4 mm | Very low 3 |
| 20 May | 30.2 °C | 52 % | 31 km/h | 4.8 mm | Very low 3 |
| 21 May after | 30.9 °C | 51 % | 31 km/h | 1.8 mm | Very low 5 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 14 May 2024 the air beside the fire reached 42 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 25: 1.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 269Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 8,571 haVilla Corzo20 April 2019 · 15 days · 3 km away
- 6,034 haVilla Corzo24 April 2023 · 18 days · 8 km away
- 5,889 haVillaflores9 May 2019 · 7 days · 17 km away
- 4,434 haVilla Corzo6 May 2022 · 18 days · 18 km away
- 8,410 haVillaflores30 March 2024 · 25 days · 26 km away
- 8,722 haVilla Corzo4 April 2019 · 22 days · 30 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Villa Corzo fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 4 May 2024 to 20 May 2024 (17 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 May 2024 to 13 May 2024. According to CONAFOR, the largest of the 3 recorded fires was detected on 5 May 2024 and declared extinguished on 11 May 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,097 hectares (51.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Villa Corzo (5,126 ha, 1.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Mexico (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 · 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.
No changes 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
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 4 May 2024 to 13 May 2024. 269 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with CONAFOR: 5,436 official ha against 5,097 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- 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.
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 (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.