How long did the Chekfa fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 18 August 2026 to 6 September 2026 (20 days). The perimeter dates it from 25 August 2026 to 26 August 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 48,071 hectares (480.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 18 municipalities: El Ancer (7,416 ha, 66 %); Boussif Ouled Askeur (5,815 ha, 58 %); Chahna (5,497 ha, 64 %); Ouled Yahia Khedrouche (5,476 ha, 66 %); Bordj Tahar (5,037 ha, 100 %); El Milia (3,388 ha, 13 %); Chekfa (3,089 ha, 50 %); Djemaa Beni Habibi (2,733 ha, 62 %); Bouraoui Belhadef (2,596 ha, 43 %); Ouled Rabah (2,534 ha, 33 %); Amira Arrès (2,144 ha, 26 %); Sidi Maarouf (1,034 ha, 16 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Chahna. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 46.2 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 66 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 75, class Very extreme.

Where does this data come from?

From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Algeria (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

DZ · Algeria · 2026-08-18 → 2026-09-06

Chekfa fire, August 2026 الشقفة · El Ancer, Boussif Ouled Askeur, Chahna

Out · last detection 6 Sept 2026, 01:47 UTC

The fire started on 18 August 2026 in Chekfa, Algeria, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 48,071 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 18 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Jijel since 2016 (of 110 with a page). The largest in Algeria in 2026, of 197.

Burnt area: 48,071ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 20days; 18 Aug 2026 – 6 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit: 18; communes
Started on: 18 Aug; 2026
Heat detections: 1,543; in a single hotspot: 198 MW
Danger at start: 29; High · FWI index
Energy released: 25.9GW; sum of detected power

Play back 6 Sept 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Aug6 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1819202124252627286

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

The weather it burned in

46°high

66km/h · peak gust

9%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

12% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 982 ha in 2017, 1,852 ha in 2020, 1,617 ha in 2021, 28 ha in 2022, 997 ha in 2023, 164 ha in 2024, 643 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,770 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

El Ancer العنصر 20,070 inhabitants · 0.4 km from the town

7,416 ha reached on 27 Aug

66 %
Boussif Ouled Askeur

5,815 ha reached on 27 Aug

58 %
Chahna بلدية الشحنة 8,781 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town

5,497 ha reached on 18 Aug

64 %
Ouled Yahia Khedrouche أولاد يحيى خدروش 18,323 inhabitants · 0.1 km from the town

5,476 ha reached on 26 Aug

66 %
Bordj Tahar برج الطهر 3,889 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town

5,037 ha reached on 26 Aug

100 %
El Milia الميلية 83,931 inhabitants · 3.4 km from the town

3,388 ha reached on 27 Aug

13 %
Chekfa الشقفة 26,553 inhabitants · 1.5 km from the town where it started

3,089 ha reached on 25 Aug

50 %
Djemaa Beni Habibi الجمعة بني حبيبي 14,652 inhabitants · 0.7 km from the town

2,733 ha reached on 24 Aug

62 %
Bouraoui Belhadef بوراوي بلهادف 10,336 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the town

2,596 ha reached on 27 Aug

43 %
Ouled Rabah أولاد رابح 10,681 inhabitants · 2.6 km from the town

2,534 ha reached on 18 Aug

33 %
Amira Arrès عميرة أراس 19,405 inhabitants · 2.4 km from the town

2,144 ha reached on 26 Aug

26 %
Sidi Maarouf سيدي معروف 21,662 inhabitants · 3.0 km from the town

1,034 ha reached on 19 Aug

16 %
Sidi Abdelaziz سيدي عبد العزيز 10,153 inhabitants · 2.2 km from the town

811 ha reached on 27 Aug

19 %
Tassala Lemtai تسالة لمطاعي 15,676 inhabitants · 3.5 km from the town

339 ha reached on 27 Aug

5.5 %
El Kennar Nouchfi القنار 15,852 inhabitants · 5.2 km from the town

251 ha reached on 27 Aug

7.5 %
Terrai Bainen ترعي باينان 23,299 inhabitants · 5.5 km from the town

1 ha

0.0 %
Djimla جيملة 17,373 inhabitants · 4.7 km from the town

0 ha

0.0 %
Oudjana وجانة 9,580 inhabitants · 3.3 km from the town

0 ha

0.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official 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.

What burned

Mixed forest78 %
Other natural land20 %
Agricultural areas1.5 %
Broadleaved forest0.7 %

Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).

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	Danger (FWI)
25 Aug	31.6 °C	49 %	30 km/h	High 29
26 Aug	46.2 °C	9 %	66 km/h	Very extreme 75
27 Aug	45.2 °C	9 %	53 km/h	Very extreme 74
28 Aug	33.2 °C	17 %	34 km/h	Very high 49
29 Aug	29.9 °C	59 %	41 km/h	High 27
30 Aug	30.2 °C	68 %	28 km/h	Moderate 19
31 Aug	30.5 °C	69 %	26 km/h	Moderate 18
1 Sept	33.6 °C	59 %	31 km/h	Moderate 19
2 Sept	35.8 °C	35 %	31 km/h	High 28
3 Sept	31.4 °C	58 %	24 km/h	High 23
4 Sept	30.2 °C	47 %	28 km/h	High 24
5 Sept	29.6 °C	50 %	25 km/h	High 23

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 11 Aug 2026

After · 13 Sept 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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 30 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 1,124 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 464: 31 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak1,124 µg/m³

Days over the guideline10 days

PM101,738 µg/m³

Optical depth3.45

WHO 15

161718192021222324252627282930311234

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 · 1,543Every 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 Algeria ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Chekfa fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 18 August 2026 to 6 September 2026 (20 days). The perimeter dates it from 25 August 2026 to 26 August 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 48,071 hectares (480.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 18 municipalities: El Ancer (7,416 ha, 66 %); Boussif Ouled Askeur (5,815 ha, 58 %); Chahna (5,497 ha, 64 %); Ouled Yahia Khedrouche (5,476 ha, 66 %); Bordj Tahar (5,037 ha, 100 %); El Milia (3,388 ha, 13 %); Chekfa (3,089 ha, 50 %); Djemaa Beni Habibi (2,733 ha, 62 %); Bouraoui Belhadef (2,596 ha, 43 %); Ouled Rabah (2,534 ha, 33 %); Amira Arrès (2,144 ha, 26 %); Sidi Maarouf (1,034 ha, 16 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Chahna. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 46.2 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 66 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 75, class Very extreme.
Where does this data come from?: From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Algeria (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.

Emergency number: 14 · 1021

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · 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.

Report an error

What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 14 · 1021.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter and land cover come from the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), measured on MODIS and Sentinel-2 imagery and published under CC BY 4.0. 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-ShareAlike 2.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from each country’s official figure.

Where it burned