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Camacupa fire, September 2025 Camacupa, Cuemba

Out · last detection 1 Oct 2025, 12:20 UTC

The fire started on 7 September 2025 in Camacupa, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,417 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 11th largest in Bié since 2016 (of 64 with a page). Number 29 in Angola in 2025, of 191.

Burnt area
14,417ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
24days
7 Sept 2025 – 30 Sept 2025
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
7 Sept
2025
Heat detections
595
in a single hotspot: 181 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
6.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Oct 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Sept30 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

7891011121314151617181920212224262829301

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
48km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.3 mm on 11 Oct.

This area had burned before

39% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 10 ha in 2017, 968 ha in 2021, 1,094 ha in 2022, 577 ha in 2023, 3,653 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,601 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Camacupa where it started
    13,550 ha reached on 31 Aug
    1.5 %
  2. Cuemba
    951 ha reached on 31 Aug
    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)
31 Aug 32.2 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
1 Sept 31.7 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Sept 31.8 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 Sept 30.4 °C 10 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 Sept 31.0 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
5 Sept 32.3 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Sept 32.3 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Sept 31.9 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Sept 32.4 °C 18 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Sept 30.9 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Sept 31.5 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Sept 33.4 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Sept 32.1 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Sept 30.4 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Sept 31.0 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Sept 32.7 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Sept 32.7 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Sept 31.8 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Sept 33.0 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Sept 33.2 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Sept 32.6 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 Sept 30.7 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.8 mm High 28
22 Sept 32.1 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
23 Sept 29.4 °C 32 % 26 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 18
24 Sept 32.9 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Sept 31.8 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Sept 30.8 °C 32 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Sept 31.3 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm High 38
28 Sept 32.3 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Sept 34.1 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Sept 31.2 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Oct after 33.7 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Oct after 29.1 °C 38 % 39 km/h 0.6 mm High 32
3 Oct after 32.9 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Oct after 34.1 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Oct after 33.8 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Oct after 34.5 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
7 Oct after 34.9 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
8 Oct after 35.0 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
9 Oct after 34.1 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
10 Oct after 31.7 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 40
11 Oct after 27.8 °C 39 % 41 km/h 5.3 mm Low 7

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Aug 2025
After · 7 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 7 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 113 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 70: 4.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak113 µg/m³
Days over the guideline29 days
PM10116 µg/m³
Optical depth1.59
56789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930123
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 · 595Every 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 Angola ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Camacupa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 September 2025 and 30 September 2025: 24 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 14,417 hectares (144.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Camacupa (13,550 ha, 1.5 %); Cuemba (951 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Angola (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 ADM2 (Public Domain). 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.