Ezo fire, January 2025 Wulu, Ezo
The fire started on 7 January 2025 in Ezo, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,785 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 67th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 361 with a page). Number 61 in South Sudan in 2025, of 292.
- Burnt area
- 16,785ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 12days
- 7 Jan 2025 – 18 Jan 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- counties
- Started on
- 7 Jan
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 914
- in a single hotspot: 83 MW
- Danger at start
- 53
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 5.0GW
- 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 56 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,060 ha in 2016, 22,542 ha in 2017, 2,758 ha in 2018, 1,196 ha in 2019, 13,954 ha in 2020, 7,774 ha in 2022, 6,943 ha in 2023, 5,228 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 16,772 ha that had burned before.
- 13,225 ha Wulu fire, January 2017 26,512 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,937 ha Wulu fire, January 2020 10,686 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,945 ha Nagero fire, December 2017 17,311 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,710 ha Wulu fire, January 2023 7,635 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,120 ha Ezo fire, January 2024 10,746 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,122 ha Wulu fire, December 2020 8,847 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,233 ha Wulu fire, January 2023 11,765 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 235 ha Nagero fire, January 2018 8,502 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
9,851 ha reached on 7 Jan0.8 %
-
Ezo where it started7,058 ha reached on 5 Jan0.9 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Jan | 35.8 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 8 Jan | 36.2 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 9 Jan | 37.3 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 10 Jan | 37.6 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 11 Jan | 35.7 °C | 12 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 12 Jan | 34.5 °C | 13 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 13 Jan | 34.3 °C | 12 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 14 Jan | 36.3 °C | 13 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 15 Jan | 37.0 °C | 12 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 16 Jan | 37.4 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 17 Jan | 38.0 °C | 17 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 18 Jan | 37.8 °C | 16 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 19 Jan after | 38.8 °C | 14 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 20 Jan after | 37.5 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 21 Jan after | 36.5 °C | 20 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 22 Jan after | 38.0 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 23 Jan after | 37.0 °C | 13 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 24 Jan after | 36.7 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 25 Jan after | 36.2 °C | 11 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 26 Jan after | 36.7 °C | 8 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 27 Jan after | 35.9 °C | 10 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 28 Jan after | 35.5 °C | 10 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
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 January 2025 the air beside the fire reached 87 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 52: 3.5 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 · 914Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 26,512 haWulu5 January 2017 · 10 days · 1 km away
- 156,948 haNzara8 December 2016 · 25 days · 21 km away
- 27,256 haTonj South4 January 2020 · 18 days · 32 km away
- 120,517 haNzara8 December 2025 · 34 days · 33 km away
- 108,462 haTonj South5 December 2016 · 23 days · 36 km away
- 26,217 haNagero24 November 2025 · 8 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ezo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 January 2025 and 18 January 2025: 12 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 16,785 hectares (167.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Wulu (9,851 ha, 0.8 %); Ezo (7,058 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of South Sudan (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 (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.