How long did the Arbinda fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 October 2026 and 23 October 2026: 2 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 1,478 hectares (14.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Arbinda (1,487 ha, 0.5 %).

Is the Arbinda fire still active?

No fire detections since 23 Oct 2026, 13:40 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.

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.

BF · Burkina Faso · 2026-10-22 → 2026-10-23

Arbinda fire, 22 October 2026 Arbinda

Dying down · last detection 23 Oct 2026, 13:40 UTC

The fire started on 22 October 2026 in Arbinda, Burkina Faso, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,478 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 81th largest in Soum since 2016 (of 134 with a page). Number 94 in Burkina Faso in 2026, of 191.

Is it still active?

No detections since 23 Oct 2026, 13:40 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: 1,478ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 2days; 22 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; communes
Started on: 22 Oct; 2026
Heat detections: 15; in a single hotspot: 0 MW
Energy released: 108MW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Oct 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Oct23 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

2223

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

This area had burned before

4% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 12 ha in 2020, 52 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 52 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Arbinda where it started

1,487 ha

0.5 %

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.

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 15 Oct 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.

Detections table · 0Every 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 Burkina Faso ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Arbinda fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 October 2026 and 23 October 2026: 2 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 1,478 hectares (14.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Arbinda (1,487 ha, 0.5 %).
Is the Arbinda fire still active?: No fire detections since 23 Oct 2026, 13:40 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
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

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 do you think is wrong?

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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.