Epukiro fire, September 2025 Epukiro, Tsumkwe
The fire started on 15 September 2025 in Epukiro, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,617 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 20th largest in Omaheke since 2016 (of 61 with a page). Number 24 in Namibia in 2025, of 87.
- Burnt area
- 6,617ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 15 Sept 2025 – 17 Sept 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- constituencies
- Started on
- 15 Sept
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 136
- in a single hotspot: 98 MW
- Danger at start
- 52
- Extreme · 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
17% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 41 ha in 2018, 1,030 ha in 2022, 351 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,128 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Epukiro where it started6,608 ha reached on 15 Sept0.6 %
-
15 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Sept | 36.5 °C | 9 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 16 Sept | 35.7 °C | 5 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 17 Sept | 34.1 °C | 7 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 18 Sept after | 36.7 °C | 5 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 19 Sept after | 37.5 °C | 9 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 78 |
| 20 Sept after | 36.4 °C | 9 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 74 |
| 21 Sept after | 34.5 °C | 14 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 22 Sept after | 34.5 °C | 18 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 23 Sept after | 34.6 °C | 16 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 24 Sept after | 34.8 °C | 8 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 25 Sept after | 34.8 °C | 15 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 26 Sept after | 32.9 °C | 22 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 27 Sept after | 35.5 °C | 9 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
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 20 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 19 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 136Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,736 haTsumkwe23 September 2018 · 3 days · 14 km away
- 6,903 haTsumkwe18 September 2018 · 9 days · 29 km away
- 12,264 haTsumkwe17 August 2023 · 9 days · 34 km away
- 9,603 haTsumkwe11 October 2022 · 4 days · 38 km away
- 7,006 haTsumkwe20 August 2023 · 7 days · 38 km away
- 4,787 haTsumkweNovember 2020 · 1 day · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Epukiro fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 September 2025 and 17 September 2025: 3 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 6,617 hectares (66.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Epukiro (6,608 ha, 0.6 %); Tsumkwe (15 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Namibia (OCHA COD-AB). 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 OCHA COD-AB (Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA)) (Creative Commons Attribution for Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY-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.