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Botto fire, February 2026 Botto, Ndenga, Ouassi

Out · last detection 8 Mar 2026, 13:06 UTC

The fire started on 15 February 2026 in Botto, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 39,505 hectares from heat detections, spread across 6 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Nana-Grébizi since 2016 (of 15 with a page). Number 10 in Central African Republic in 2026, of 148.

Burnt area
39,505ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
22days
15 Feb 2026 – 8 Mar 2026
Municipalities hit
6
sub-prefectures
Started on
15 Feb
2026
Heat detections
1,660
in a single hotspot: 159 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
11.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Mar 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Feb8 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

151617181920212223242526272812345678

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
40km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 14 Mar.

This area had burned before

25% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,215 ha in 2016, 1,730 ha in 2017, 710 ha in 2019, 735 ha in 2020, 2,302 ha in 2021, 3,090 ha in 2022, 3,134 ha in 2023, 496 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,029 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Botto where it started
    16,054 ha reached on 15 Feb
    20 %
  2. Ndenga
    14,204 ha reached on 16 Feb
    3.9 %
  3. Ouassi
    8,909 ha reached on 17 Feb
    5.7 %
  4. Nana-Outa
    386 ha reached on 17 Feb
    0.0 %
  5. Ouaki
    159 ha reached on 18 Feb
    0.1 %
  6. Lady Gbawi
    50 ha reached on 16 Feb
    0.0 %

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 37.6 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Feb 37.2 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Feb 36.9 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Feb 35.0 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Feb 37.0 °C 15 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Feb 37.6 °C 19 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Feb 39.0 °C 17 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Feb 37.2 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Feb 37.3 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Feb 35.9 °C 32 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Feb 37.7 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Feb 37.7 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
27 Feb 37.6 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Feb 36.0 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
1 Mar 36.7 °C 11 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
2 Mar 37.7 °C 14 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Mar 38.6 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
4 Mar 37.6 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
5 Mar 37.9 °C 13 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
6 Mar 38.6 °C 13 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Mar 40.2 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Mar 40.3 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
9 Mar after 40.2 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Mar after 38.1 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
11 Mar after 37.9 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Mar after 38.5 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Mar after 39.6 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
14 Mar after 39.4 °C 29 % 38 km/h 1.1 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Feb 2026
After · 15 Mar 2026

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 19 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 103 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 85: 5.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak103 µg/m³
Days over the guideline26 days
PM10377 µg/m³
Optical depth0.84
131415161718192021222324252627281234567891011
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 · 1,660Every 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 Central African Republic ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Botto fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 15 February 2026 to 8 March 2026 (22 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 February 2026 to 7 March 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 39,505 hectares (395.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 6 municipalities: Botto (16,054 ha, 20 %); Ndenga (14,204 ha, 3.9 %); Ouassi (8,909 ha, 5.7 %); Nana-Outa (386 ha, 0.0 %); Ouaki (159 ha, 0.1 %); Lady Gbawi (50 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.3 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Central African Republic (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.

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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 geoBoundaries ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 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.