Skip to content
worldfires
BF · Burkina Faso · →

Arbinda fire, 18 October 2025 Arbinda, Bouroum

Out · last detection 22 Oct 2025, 12:34 UTC

The fire started on 18 October 2025 in Arbinda, Burkina Faso, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,608 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 13th largest in Soum since 2016 (of 134 with a page). Number 66 in Burkina Faso in 2025, of 609.

Burnt area
4,608ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
18 Oct 2025 – 21 Oct 2025
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
18 Oct
2025
Heat detections
78
in a single hotspot: 60 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
730MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Oct 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Oct21 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1819202122

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
36km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

32% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 942 ha in 2021, 535 ha in 2023.

What happened to each town

  1. Arbinda where it started
    4,560 ha reached on 18 Oct
    1.6 %
  2. Bouroum
    73 ha reached on 19 Oct
    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)
18 Oct 38.6 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Oct 40.0 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Oct 39.4 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Oct 39.3 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
22 Oct after 40.5 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Oct after 41.4 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
24 Oct after 39.9 °C 11 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Oct after 40.5 °C 7 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Oct after 40.1 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
27 Oct after 40.1 °C 9 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
28 Oct after 40.7 °C 6 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
29 Oct after 40.1 °C 9 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
30 Oct after 39.9 °C 8 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
31 Oct after 39.6 °C 11 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Oct 2025
After · 28 Oct 2025

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 23 October 2025 the air beside the fire reached 43 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 24: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak43 µg/m³
Days over the guideline5 days
PM1098 µg/m³
Optical depth0.35
161718192021222324
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 · 78Every 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 Burkina Faso ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Arbinda fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 October 2025 and 21 October 2025: 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 4,608 hectares (46.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Arbinda (4,560 ha, 1.6 %); Bouroum (73 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.0 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Burkina Faso (OCHA COD-AB). 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.

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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 OCHA COD-AB (Institut Geographique Burkina (IGB)) (Creative Commons Attribution for Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY-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.