Dasse fire, 28 March 2026 Dasse, Kamajei
The fire started on 28 March 2026 in Dasse, Sierra Leone, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,114 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 16th largest in Southern since 2016 (of 393 with a page). Number 27 in Sierra Leone in 2026, of 305.
- Burnt area
- 4,114ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 28 Mar 2026 – 7 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- chiefdoms
- Started on
- 28 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 126
- in a single hotspot: 92 MW
- Danger at start
- 17
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.8GW
- 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 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 9 Apr.
This area had burned before
19% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 335 ha in 2017, 27 ha in 2019, 5 ha in 2023, 401 ha in 2024.
- 401 ha Bumpe Ngao fire, March 2024 1,314 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 335 ha Dasse fire, April 2017 1,479 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 27 ha Dasse fire, April 2019 1,220 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5 ha Kowa fire, April 2023 1,092 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dasse where it started4,130 ha reached on 21 Mar12 %
-
11 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Mar | 34.8 °C | 41 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 29 Mar | 36.1 °C | 41 % | 34 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 30 Mar | 33.8 °C | 46 % | 29 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 31 Mar | 33.9 °C | 48 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 1 Apr | 35.4 °C | 46 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 2 Apr | 35.3 °C | 42 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 3 Apr | 34.9 °C | 39 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 4 Apr | 34.6 °C | 45 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 5 Apr | 35.5 °C | 38 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 6 Apr | 35.7 °C | 42 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 7 Apr | 34.9 °C | 45 % | 32 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 8 Apr after | 36.1 °C | 38 % | 33 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 9 Apr after | 34.6 °C | 53 % | 35 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
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 8 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 76 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 42: 2.8 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 · 126Every 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 Dasse fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 March 2026 and 7 April 2026: 11 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 4,114 hectares (41.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dasse (4,130 ha, 12 %); Kamajei (11 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Sierra Leone (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 ADM3 (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.