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CM · Cameroon · –

Furu-Awa fire, 13 November 2025 Furu-Awa, Fonfuka, Zhoa

Out · last detection 27 Dec 2025, 13:36 UTC

The fire started on 13 November 2025 in Furu-Awa, Cameroon, and satellites saw it burning for 45 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,816 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

Number 4 in Cameroon in 2025, of 236.

GWIS near-real-time perimeter, from the layer that changed in August 2025: this fire is not compared with fires from earlier years, because since then the GWIS layer gives more and larger perimeters.

Burnt area
13,816ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
45days
13 Nov 2025 – 27 Dec 2025
Municipalities hit
3
communes
Started on
13 Nov
2025
Heat detections
485
in a single hotspot: 54 MW
Danger at start
3
Very low · FWI index
Average daily power
101MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Nov27 Dec
27 Dec 2025

How it evolved, day by day

13 Nov 2025 · 36 MW · 4 16 Nov 2025 · 7 MW · 1 17 Nov 2025 · 22 MW · 5 18 Nov 2025 · 61 MW · 8 19 Nov 2025 · 21 MW · 4 20 Nov 2025 · 441 MW · 37 21 Nov 2025 · 13 MW · 3 22 Nov 2025 · 44 MW · 6 23 Nov 2025 · 146 MW · 20 24 Nov 2025 · 220 MW · 17 25 Nov 2025 · 127 MW · 19 26 Nov 2025 · 8 MW · 2 27 Nov 2025 · 134 MW · 17 28 Nov 2025 · 119 MW · 21 29 Nov 2025 · 254 MW · 25 30 Nov 2025 · 3 MW · 1 1 Dec 2025 · 51 MW · 9 2 Dec 2025 · 117 MW · 19 3 Dec 2025 · 154 MW · 19 4 Dec 2025 · 83 MW · 14 5 Dec 2025 · 24 MW · 2 7 Dec 2025 · 20 MW · 2 8 Dec 2025 · 185 MW · 23 9 Dec 2025 · 397 MW · 48 10 Dec 2025 · 176 MW · 23 11 Dec 2025 · 61 MW · 10 12 Dec 2025 · 12 MW · 3 13 Dec 2025 · 107 MW · 14 14 Dec 2025 · 38 MW · 7 15 Dec 2025 · 102 MW · 13 16 Dec 2025 · 287 MW · 29 17 Dec 2025 · 62 MW · 8 18 Dec 2025 · 91 MW · 15 19 Dec 2025 · 133 MW · 20 21 Dec 2025 · 32 MW · 9 24 Dec 2025 · 13 MW · 5 26 Dec 2025 · 11 MW · 1 27 Dec 2025 · 15 MW · 2
20 Nov 1 Dec 10 Dec 18 Dec

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

33°high
41km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,664 ha in 2016, 3,522 ha in 2017, 4,651 ha in 2019, 3,540 ha in 2020, 3,012 ha in 2022, 2,800 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 12,332 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 8.7% of the area of London (138 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Furu-Awa where it started
    11,611 ha reached on 13 Nov
    9.7 %
  2. 4,317 ha reached on 13 Nov
    6.1 %
  3. 168 ha reached on 18 Nov
    0.1 %

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 2025
Built-up area0.23 ha
Residents≈ 30

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.23 hectares of built-up land and about 30 residents (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)
13 Nov 26.6 °C 52 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
14 Nov 29.1 °C 44 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
15 Nov 29.1 °C 44 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm Low 6
16 Nov 28.9 °C 42 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
17 Nov 28.8 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
18 Nov 29.6 °C 41 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
19 Nov 29.7 °C 36 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
20 Nov 30.0 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm Low 10
21 Nov 30.3 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
22 Nov 29.3 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
23 Nov 30.7 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
24 Nov 30.3 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
25 Nov 31.6 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
26 Nov 30.2 °C 38 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
27 Nov 29.6 °C 40 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
28 Nov 30.6 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
29 Nov 32.5 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
30 Nov 30.5 °C 42 % 33 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 16
1 Dec 30.8 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
2 Dec 29.8 °C 46 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
3 Dec 29.0 °C 47 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 16
4 Dec 29.5 °C 48 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
5 Dec 30.5 °C 46 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 16
6 Dec 30.7 °C 47 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 16
7 Dec 30.6 °C 42 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
8 Dec 31.4 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
9 Dec 30.9 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
10 Dec 30.3 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
11 Dec 31.0 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
12 Dec 31.7 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
13 Dec 32.9 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
14 Dec 31.8 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
15 Dec 30.4 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.3 mm High 24
16 Dec 31.3 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
17 Dec 31.3 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
18 Dec 29.8 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
19 Dec 32.1 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
20 Dec 31.9 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 Dec 31.5 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
22 Dec 29.8 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
23 Dec 31.7 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Dec 30.0 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Dec 32.0 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 Dec 31.9 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Dec 31.5 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 Dec after 30.6 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
29 Dec after 31.4 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
30 Dec after 33.4 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
31 Dec after 32.2 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
1 Jan after 34.0 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Jan after 32.0 °C 36 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Jan after 30.7 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Jan after 32.6 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Jan after 31.1 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Jan after 32.6 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 6 Nov 2025
After · 3 Jan 2026

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 · Copernicus

On 12 December 2025 the air beside the fire reached 74 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 67: 4.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak74 µg/m³
Days over the guideline38 days
PM10232 µg/m³
Optical depth0.79
16 Nov24 Nov2 Dec10 Dec18 Dec
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 · 485Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Cameroon

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Furu-Awa fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 13 November 2025 to 27 December 2025 (45 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 November 2025 to 21 December 2025.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 13,816 hectares (138.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Furu-Awa (11,611 ha, 9.7 %); Fonfuka (4,317 ha, 6.1 %); Zhoa (168 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Cameroon (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

History of this page · 3 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Area: 15,994 → 13,816 ha.
  2. Last day with fire: 21 December 2025 → 27 December 2025.
  3. Start date: 18 November 2025 → 13 November 2025.

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.

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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 8 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 18 November 2025 to 21 December 2025. 485 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.