Dande fire, 23 September 2026 Dande
The fire started on 23 September 2026 in Dande, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 18,216 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 2th largest in Bengo since 2016 (of 20 with a page). Number 61 in Angola in 2026, of 486.
Is it still active?
No detections since 23 Oct 2026, 13:33 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
- 18,216ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 30days
- 23 Sept 2026 – 22 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 23 Sept
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 704
- in a single hotspot: 135 MW
- Danger at start
- 22
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 6.9GW
- 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 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 17 Oct.
This area had burned before
82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,831 ha in 2016, 550 ha in 2018, 3,929 ha in 2019, 9,501 ha in 2021, 4,787 ha in 2022, 4,507 ha in 2023, 5,360 ha in 2024, 9,662 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 14,877 ha that had burned before.
- 4,911 ha Dande fire, September 2025 13,322 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,372 ha Dande fire, October 2021 5,667 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,933 ha Dande fire, September 2024 9,469 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dande where it started18,339 ha reached on 23 Sept2.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Sept | 31.3 °C | 45 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 24 Sept | 32.9 °C | 43 % | 36 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 25 |
| 25 Sept | 35.2 °C | 38 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 26 Sept | 28.4 °C | 52 % | 28 km/h | 0.9 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 27 Sept | 33.7 °C | 42 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 28 Sept | 29.7 °C | 47 % | 25 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 29 Sept | 28.7 °C | 55 % | 33 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 30 Sept | 32.1 °C | 45 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 23 |
| 1 Oct | 29.2 °C | 54 % | 20 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 2 Oct | 32.9 °C | 46 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 3 Oct | 32.9 °C | 44 % | 31 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 25 |
| 4 Oct | 31.5 °C | 48 % | 31 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 23 |
| 5 Oct | 32.4 °C | 45 % | 30 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 23 |
| 6 Oct | 28.0 °C | 57 % | 31 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 7 Oct | 32.7 °C | 40 % | 23 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 8 Oct | 31.9 °C | 46 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 9 Oct | 35.4 °C | 34 % | 33 km/h | 3.4 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 10 Oct | 34.2 °C | 41 % | 37 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 24 |
| 11 Oct | 31.5 °C | 51 % | 30 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 22 |
| 12 Oct | 29.4 °C | 58 % | 22 km/h | 0.9 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 13 Oct | 34.0 °C | 46 % | 27 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 14 Oct | 32.6 °C | 50 % | 32 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 22 |
| 15 Oct | 35.1 °C | 39 % | 30 km/h | 6.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 16 Oct | 29.4 °C | 60 % | 22 km/h | 0.5 mm | Low 11 |
| 17 Oct | 30.7 °C | 56 % | 25 km/h | 1.1 mm | Low 10 |
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 9 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 104 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 49: 3.3 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 · 704Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dande fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 23 September 2026 to 22 October 2026 (30 days). The perimeter dates it from 30 September 2026 to 15 October 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 18,216 hectares (182.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dande (18,339 ha, 2.6 %).
- Is the Dande fire still active?
- No fire detections since 23 Oct 2026, 13:33 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.4 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, class High.
- 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.
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 (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.