Arbinda fire, 26 October 2025 Arbinda, Gorom-Gorom, Koutougou
The fire started on 26 October 2025 in Arbinda, Burkina Faso, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 37,890 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the largest fire in Soum since 2016 (of 134 with a page). Number 4 in Burkina Faso in 2025, of 609.
- Burnt area
- 37,890ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 26 Oct 2025 – 2 Nov 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- communes
- Started on
- 26 Oct
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 567
- in a single hotspot: 164 MW
- Danger at start
- 56
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 6.4GW
- 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 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
52% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,665 ha in 2020, 3,730 ha in 2021, 8,376 ha in 2022, 3,525 ha in 2023, 8,133 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 19,628 ha that had burned before.
- 4,993 ha Gorom-Gorom fire, November 2024 9,191 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,127 ha Arbinda fire, October 2022 9,569 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,313 ha Arbinda fire, December 2022 4,056 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,416 ha Arbinda fire, November 2020 8,161 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,286 ha Déou fire, October 2024 3,676 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,157 ha Arbinda fire, December 2021 3,350 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,152 ha Arbinda fire, January 2021 1,823 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,084 ha Arbinda fire, December 2022 1,270 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Arbinda where it started23,389 ha reached on 26 Oct8.2 %
-
13,251 ha reached on 26 Oct4.3 %
-
941 ha reached on 28 Oct0.5 %
-
540 ha reached on 28 Oct0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Oct | 39.6 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 27 Oct | 39.3 °C | 11 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 28 Oct | 40.2 °C | 9 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 29 Oct | 39.6 °C | 12 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 30 Oct | 39.2 °C | 11 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 31 Oct | 39.0 °C | 11 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 1 Nov | 38.6 °C | 6 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 2 Nov | 38.9 °C | 5 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 3 Nov after | 38.1 °C | 8 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 4 Nov after | 37.9 °C | 9 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 5 Nov after | 37.8 °C | 12 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 6 Nov after | 38.7 °C | 10 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 7 Nov after | 38.8 °C | 16 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 8 Nov after | 36.7 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 9 Nov after | 38.2 °C | 15 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 10 Nov after | 37.8 °C | 8 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 11 Nov after | 38.1 °C | 8 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 12 Nov after | 38.1 °C | 6 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 13 Nov after | 38.2 °C | 4 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 14 Nov after | 37.1 °C | 3 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
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 31 October 2025 the air beside the fire reached 110 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 69: 4.6 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 · 567Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 9,569 haArbinda27 October 2022 · 4 days · 9 km away
- 24,590 haArbinda 19 October 2026 · 6 days · 12 km away
- 9,509 haKoutougouJanuary 2023 · 4 days · 18 km away
- 8,265 haDéou17 October 2025 · 4 days · 19 km away
- 8,161 haArbinda11 November 2020 · 7 days · 20 km away
- 9,191 haGorom-Gorom18 November 2024 · 4 days · 25 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Arbinda fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 October 2025 and 2 November 2025: 8 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 37,890 hectares (378.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Arbinda (23,389 ha, 8.2 %); Gorom-Gorom (13,251 ha, 4.3 %); Koutougou (941 ha, 0.5 %); Déou (540 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.2 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 72, class Very extreme.
- 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
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.