How long did the Chitambo fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 6 October 2026 to 23 October 2026 (18 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 October 2026 to 22 October 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 13,391 hectares (133.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lavushimanda (6,849 ha, 0.5 %); Chitambo (6,639 ha, 0.6 %).

Is the Chitambo fire still active?

Yes: satellites detected fire on 23 Oct 2026, 23:44 UTC. Check the emergency service for the official status.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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.

ZM · Zambia · 2026-10-06 → 2026-10-23

Chitambo fire, 6 October 2026 Lavushimanda, Chitambo

Burning · last detection 23 Oct 2026, 23:44 UTC

The fire started on 6 October 2026 in Chitambo, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,391 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 40th largest in Central since 2016 (of 400 with a page). Number 64 in Zambia in 2026, of 604.

Is it still active?

Satellites detected fire on 23 Oct 2026, 23:44 UTC. Everything suggests it is still burning. 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: 13,391ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 18days; 6 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 6 Oct; 2026
Heat detections: 307; in a single hotspot: 164 MW
Danger at start: 13; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 2.5GW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Oct 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Oct23 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

7910111314151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

32°high

48km/h · peak gust

21%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

35% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 640 ha in 2016, 1,858 ha in 2017, 576 ha in 2018, 1,631 ha in 2020, 46 ha in 2022, 948 ha in 2023, 955 ha in 2024, 1,855 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,753 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Lavushimanda

6,849 ha reached on 7 Oct

0.5 %
Chitambo where it started

6,639 ha reached on 7 Oct

0.6 %

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)
6 Oct	29.0 °C	36 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
7 Oct	31.6 °C	29 %	31 km/h	2.3 mm	Low 8
8 Oct	30.9 °C	31 %	41 km/h	1.7 mm	Low 11
9 Oct	30.4 °C	35 %	42 km/h	0.4 mm	Moderate 16
10 Oct	30.6 °C	30 %	41 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 19
11 Oct	29.4 °C	34 %	42 km/h	0.4 mm	Moderate 20
12 Oct	30.6 °C	27 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
13 Oct	31.1 °C	24 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
14 Oct	30.8 °C	22 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
15 Oct	30.9 °C	21 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
16 Oct	30.6 °C	22 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
17 Oct	30.2 °C	23 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
18 Oct	30.7 °C	21 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 29 Sept 2026

After · 23 Oct 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 12 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 42 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 29: 1.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak42 µg/m³

Days over the guideline11 days

PM1044 µg/m³

Optical depth0.61

WHO 15

4567891011121314151617

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 · 307Every 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 Zambia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Chitambo fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 6 October 2026 to 23 October 2026 (18 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 October 2026 to 22 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 13,391 hectares (133.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lavushimanda (6,849 ha, 0.5 %); Chitambo (6,639 ha, 0.6 %).
Is the Chitambo fire still active?: Yes: satellites detected fire on 23 Oct 2026, 23:44 UTC. Check the emergency service for the official status.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · 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.

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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 (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.