Boron fire, February 2026 Boron, Niamana, Sébété
The fire started on 15 February 2026 in Boron, Mali, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,554 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 27th largest in Koulikouro since 2016 (of 120 with a page). Number 28 in Mali in 2026, of 122.
The power measured by the satellite is low (25.5 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 3,554ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 15 Feb 2026 – 18 Feb 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- communes
- Started on
- 15 Feb
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 73
- in a single hotspot: 26 MW
- Danger at start
- 64
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 114MW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,312 ha in 2016, 76 ha in 2024, 149 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,424 ha that had burned before.
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
-
Boron where it started3,392 ha reached on 15 Feb1.8 %
-
163 ha0.0 %
-
21 ha reached on 21 Feb0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Feb | 36.8 °C | 11 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 16 Feb | 32.5 °C | 8 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 17 Feb | 33.1 °C | 7 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 18 Feb | 34.6 °C | 6 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 19 Feb after | 36.3 °C | 7 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 20 Feb after | 36.9 °C | 7 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 21 Feb after | 36.9 °C | 7 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 22 Feb after | 36.4 °C | 8 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 23 Feb after | 36.1 °C | 8 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 24 Feb after | 36.3 °C | 9 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 25 Feb after | 37.5 °C | 9 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 26 Feb after | 36.4 °C | 10 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 27 Feb after | 37.4 °C | 11 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 28 Feb after | 32.5 °C | 15 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
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 16 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 125 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 97: 6.5 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 · 73Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 2,812 haNiamanaDecember 2025 · 6 days · 13 km away
- 2,341 haNiamanaFebruary 2026 · 3 days · 13 km away
- 3,180 haNiamana18 January 2026 · 6 days · 26 km away
- 2,291 haToubacoroDecember 2025 · 4 days · 27 km away
- 2,406 haNiamanaFebruary 2019 · 6 days · 37 km away
- 4,444 haNiamana1 November 2025 · 6 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Boron fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 February 2026 and 18 February 2026: 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 3,554 hectares (35.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Boron (3,392 ha, 1.8 %); Niamana (163 ha, 0.0 %); Sébété (21 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Mali (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.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 73 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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 ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (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.