Burned area
satellite only3,234ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 8 Oct 2024 – 8 Oct 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
ZA · South Africa ·
Enoch Mgijima fire, October 2024 Enoch Mgijima
Out · last detection 8 Oct 2024, 12:22 UTC
The fire started on 8 October 2024 in Enoch Mgijima, South Africa, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,234 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 74th largest in Eastern Cape since 2016 (of 152 with a page). Number 60 in South Africa in 2024, of 121.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only1day
8 Oct 2024 to 8 Oct 2024: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 8 Oct 2024, 12:22 UTC
+− cross-check
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.
Start
satellite only8 Oct 2024
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 8 Oct 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only71
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 208 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 8 Oct 2024 – 8 Oct 2024
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only3,565MW
Total radiative power on 8 October 2024; hotspots that day: 71.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 8 Oct 2024
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model15.4FWI · moderate
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 7.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 8 Oct 2024, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model24.3°C · 23% RH
High of 24.3 °C and minimum humidity of 23% on 8 October 2024; gusts of 36 km/h on 8 October 2024.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 8 Oct 2024 – 8 Oct 2024
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 3,234 ha
- Dates
- 8 Oct 2024 – 8 Oct 2024
- Name
- Enoch Mgijima
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/enoch-mgijima-2024-10?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire enoch-mgijima-2024-10.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-10-08 | 71 | 3,565 | 24.3 | 6.5 | 23 | 13.8 | 35.6 | 0.7 | 15.4 | moderado | 1 |
| 2024-10-09 | 0 | 0 | 26.9 | 10.8 | 14 | 22.4 | 49.7 | 0.1 | 27.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2024-10-10 | 0 | 0 | 29.7 | 13.3 | 9 | 30 | 67.7 | 0 | 41.2 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2024-10-11 | 0 | 0 | 25.5 | 11.3 | 19 | 14.7 | 37.8 | 0 | 26.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2024-10-12 | 0 | 0 | 32.9 | 6.9 | 4 | 13.3 | 32.4 | 0 | 34.1 | alto | 0 |
| 2024-10-13 | 0 | 0 | 30.7 | 9.5 | 15 | 14.1 | 38.5 | 0 | 32.9 | alto | 0 |
| 2024-10-14 | 0 | 0 | 12.6 | 2.7 | 52 | 22.6 | 48.2 | 0.8 | 16 | moderado | 0 |
| 2024-10-15 | 0 | 0 | 15.4 | 0.2 | 26 | 22.3 | 51.5 | 0 | 20.2 | moderado | 0 |
| 2024-10-16 | 0 | 0 | 26.1 | 1.7 | 18 | 16.4 | 37.4 | 0 | 25.4 | alto | 0 |
| 2024-10-17 | 0 | 0 | 25.9 | 8.5 | 21 | 25.4 | 63.7 | 1.7 | 21.4 | alto | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 3,234ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 1day
- 8 Oct 2024 – 8 Oct 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 8 Oct
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 71
- in a single hotspot: 208 MW
- Danger at start
- 15
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 3.6GW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
8 Oct8 Oct
How it evolved, day by day
8 Oct 2024 · 3,565 MW · 71
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
24°high
36km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity
It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 17 Oct.
This area had burned before
45% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,455 ha in 2016.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Enoch Mgijima where it started3,260 ha reached on 8 Oct0.2 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Built-up area0.17 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there were about 0.17 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Oct | 24.3 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 9 Oct after | 26.9 °C | 14 % | 50 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 28 |
| 10 Oct after | 29.7 °C | 9 % | 68 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 11 Oct after | 25.5 °C | 19 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 12 Oct after | 32.9 °C | 4 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 13 Oct after | 30.7 °C | 15 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 14 Oct after | 12.6 °C | 52 % | 48 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 15 Oct after | 15.4 °C | 26 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 16 Oct after | 26.1 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 17 Oct after | 25.9 °C | 21 % | 64 km/h | 1.7 mm | High 21 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 15.4, a minimum humidity of 23% and 7 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 20.
FWI at the start
15.4
Minimum humidity
23 %
Days without rain
7
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Enoch Mgijima fire, October 2024
3,234 ha
1 day
FWI 15.4
Min. humidity 23 %
Senqu fire, September 2021
2,567 ha
3 days
FWI 14.3
Min. humidity 22 %
172 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 8.9 mm on 29 Sept.
Blue Crane Route fire, October 2016
4,506 ha
9 days
FWI 12.3
Min. humidity 23 %
123 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.0 mm on 4 Nov.
Raymond Mhlaba fire, July 2024
2,494 ha
5 days
FWI 20.3
Min. humidity 21 %
35 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.2 mm on 28 Jul.
Raymond Mhlaba fire, July 2021
2,248 ha
8 days
FWI 16.0
Min. humidity 23 %
40 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.0 mm on 13 Jul.
Senqu fire, August 2022
2,191 ha
1 day
FWI 13.5
Min. humidity 21 %
181 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 5 days
- median duration
- 2,543 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 3.1 mm
- rain at the end (median; 16 of 20 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (3,234 ha against a median of 2,543 ha) and lasted 1 day, against 5 days.
In 4 of 20, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.1 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
1.7 mmfirst rain
17 Oct9 days after it ended
36km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 8 Oct, and on 17 Oct 1.7 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 16 of 20, with a median of 3.1 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 1 Oct 2024
After · 15 Oct 2024
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 2024 the air beside the fire reached 22 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak22 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1032 µg/m³
Optical depth0.35
WHO 15
6 Oct8 Oct10 Oct
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 · 71Every 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
- 3,776 haEnoch MgijimaSeptember 2016 · 2 days · 4 km away
- 3,155 haEnoch MgijimaSeptember 2026 · 4 days · 6 km away
- 3,122 haEnoch MgijimaDecember 2018 · 8 days · 15 km away
- 2,494 haRaymond MhlabaJuly 2024 · 5 days · 35 km away
- 4,645 haRaymond Mhlaba15 August 2024 · 13 days · 36 km away
- 2,248 haRaymond MhlabaJuly 2021 · 8 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Enoch Mgijima fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 October 2024 and 8 October 2024: 1 day 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 3,234 hectares (32.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Enoch Mgijima (3,260 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 24.3 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 15, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of South Africa (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 20. Their median duration was 5 days and their median area 2,543 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 4 of 20, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.1 mm.
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.
Emergency number: 10177 · 112 · Emergency number and official warnings
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 71 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.