Dibia fire, April 2026 Dibia, Bureh Kasseh Ma
The fire started on 14 April 2026 in Dibia, Sierra Leone, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,282 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 21th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 1112 with a page). Number 15 in Sierra Leone in 2026, of 305.
- Burnt area
- 5,282ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 20days
- 14 Apr 2026 – 3 May 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- chiefdoms
- Started on
- 14 Apr
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 146
- in a single hotspot: 182 MW
- Danger at start
- 25
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.8GW
- 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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 5 May.
This area had burned before
41% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 401 ha in 2017, 683 ha in 2018, 1,394 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,174 ha that had burned before.
- 1,031 ha Dibia fire, April 2023 1,735 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 569 ha Dibia fire, April 2018 1,178 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 401 ha Dibia fire, April 2017 2,530 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 363 ha Dibia fire, April 2023 1,157 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 114 ha Dibia fire, April 2018 1,092 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dibia where it started5,113 ha reached on 14 Apr27 %
-
203 ha reached on 15 Apr0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Apr | 34.6 °C | 50 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 15 Apr | 36.7 °C | 41 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 16 Apr | 35.4 °C | 46 % | 32 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 27 |
| 17 Apr | 35.7 °C | 37 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 18 Apr | 36.9 °C | 34 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 19 Apr | 36.3 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 20 Apr | 36.1 °C | 39 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 31 |
| 21 Apr | 36.0 °C | 37 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 22 Apr | 36.4 °C | 39 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 34 |
| 23 Apr | 35.6 °C | 31 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 24 Apr | 34.9 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 25 Apr | 37.0 °C | 33 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 26 Apr | 34.6 °C | 40 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 27 Apr | 34.8 °C | 42 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 28 Apr | 36.4 °C | 32 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 29 Apr | 35.5 °C | 28 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 30 Apr | 36.4 °C | 37 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 1 May | 37.2 °C | 34 % | 37 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 39 |
| 2 May | 36.6 °C | 41 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 3 May | 34.3 °C | 53 % | 34 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 28 |
| 4 May after | 36.6 °C | 44 % | 30 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 28 |
| 5 May after | 34.7 °C | 47 % | 35 km/h | 1.5 mm | High 21 |
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 4 May 2026 the air beside the fire reached 76 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 46: 3.0 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 · 146Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,166 haTMS14 April 2026 · 16 days · 10 km away
- 3,930 haSanda MagbolontApril 2026 · 24 days · 13 km away
- 4,073 haTMS6 April 2026 · 29 days · 16 km away
- 3,767 haMaforkiApril 2019 · 8 days · 20 km away
- 4,408 haTonko Limba23 April 2022 · 6 days · 33 km away
- 3,112 haMasungbala23 April 2026 · 15 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dibia fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 April 2026 to 3 May 2026 (20 days). The perimeter dates it from 14 April 2026 to 26 April 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,282 hectares (52.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dibia (5,113 ha, 27 %); Bureh Kasseh Ma (203 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, class Very 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.