Chilubi fire, October 2026 Chilubi
The fire started on 8 October 2026 in Chilubi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,854 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 256th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 236 in Zambia in 2026, of 604.
Is it still active?
No detections since 22 Oct 2026, 12:10 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
- 4,854ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 8 Oct 2026 – 22 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 8 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 110
- in a single hotspot: 85 MW
- Danger at start
- 41
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.1GW
- sum of detected power
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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,560 ha in 2016, 2,679 ha in 2017, 1,991 ha in 2018, 2,249 ha in 2019, 2,195 ha in 2020, 2,601 ha in 2021, 3,387 ha in 2022, 2,716 ha in 2023, 2,807 ha in 2024, 3,209 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,725 ha that had burned before.
- 3,560 ha Chilubi fire, September 2016 10,104 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,819 ha Chilubi fire, September 2022 3,192 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,807 ha Chilubi fire, September 2024 26,796 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,601 ha Chilubi fire, September 2021 8,893 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,194 ha Chilubi fire, September 2020 6,376 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,133 ha Chilubi fire, September 2023 7,463 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 478 ha Kasama fire, August 2025 91,611 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 114 ha Chilubi fire, September 2025 7,275 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chilubi where it started4,886 ha reached on 13 Oct0.9 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Oct | 33.3 °C | 24 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 9 Oct | 33.8 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 10 Oct | 33.9 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 11 Oct | 32.4 °C | 27 % | 41 km/h | 0.5 mm | Very high 48 |
| 12 Oct | 33.3 °C | 26 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 43 |
| 13 Oct | 33.2 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 14 Oct | 33.7 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 15 Oct | 33.3 °C | 20 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 16 Oct | 32.7 °C | 19 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 17 Oct | 32.7 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 18 Oct | 34.0 °C | 18 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
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 11 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 44 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 30: 2.0 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 · 110Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 26,796 haChilubiSeptember 2024 · 11 days · 11 km away
- 399,650 haLuwingu18 August 2026 · 42 days · 19 km away
- 24,987 haKasama5 September 2021 · 8 days · 29 km away
- 22,852 haLuwingu27 August 2016 · 21 days · 32 km away
- 25,335 haKasama26 August 2019 · 16 days · 33 km away
- 91,611 haKasama20 August 2025 · 31 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chilubi fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 8 October 2026 to 22 October 2026 (15 days). The perimeter dates it from 8 October 2026 to 20 October 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,854 hectares (48.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chilubi (4,886 ha, 0.9 %).
- Is the Chilubi fire still active?
- No fire detections since 22 Oct 2026, 12:10 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.9 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Zambia (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
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 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (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.