Skip to content
worldfires
ZM · Zambia · →

Chingola fire, June 2026 Chingola, Lufwanyama

Out · last detection 9 Jul 2026, 11:17 UTC

The fire started on 24 June 2026 in Chingola, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,886 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 21th largest in Copperbelt since 2016 (of 84 with a page). Number 232 in Zambia in 2026, of 610.

The power measured by the satellite is low (21.3 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
4,886ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
24 Jun 2026 – 8 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
24 Jun
2026
Heat detections
117
in a single hotspot: 21 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
776MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Jul 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Jun8 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

272930123456789

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
41km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 980 ha in 2016, 7 ha in 2017, 742 ha in 2018, 1,439 ha in 2019, 5 ha in 2020, 1,445 ha in 2021, 88 ha in 2023, 1,097 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,705 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chingola where it started
    2,558 ha reached on 21 Jun
    1.5 %
  2. Lufwanyama
    2,355 ha reached on 21 Jun
    0.2 %

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)
24 Jun 24.4 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
25 Jun 25.1 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Jun 23.7 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Jun 23.5 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Jun 24.2 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
29 Jun 25.3 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 Jun 25.2 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
1 Jul 26.9 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Jul 27.9 °C 31 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
3 Jul 26.8 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Jul 24.9 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Jul 24.6 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Jul 23.7 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Jul 23.1 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Jul 24.5 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Jul after 25.2 °C 36 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Jul after 26.6 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Jul after 26.8 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
12 Jul after 27.2 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Jul after 26.3 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Jul after 25.9 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Jul after 24.8 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Jul after 23.7 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Jul after 23.7 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 Jul after 24.5 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Jun 2026
After · 15 Jul 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 8 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 82 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 36: 2.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak82 µg/m³
Days over the guideline14 days
PM1084 µg/m³
Optical depth0.62
2223242526272829301234567891011
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 · 117Every 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 Zambia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Chingola fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 June 2026 and 8 July 2026: 15 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 4,886 hectares (48.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chingola (2,558 ha, 1.5 %); Lufwanyama (2,355 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.9 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.