Gilé fire, 1 September 2025 Gilé, Alto Molocue, Ribaué
The fire started on 1 September 2025 in Gilé, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 29 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 169,464 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 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:
- 43,808 haMurrupula2 September 2025 · 36 days
- 31,424 haAlto Molocue2 September 2025 · 24 days
- 24,004 haGilé1 September 2025 · 25 days
- 16,135 haGilé5 September 2025 · 21 days
- 15,282 haMurrupula9 September 2025 · 28 days
- 9,812 haGilé23 August 2025 · 34 days
- 9,006 haRibaué9 September 2025 · 27 days
- 5,991 haRibaué10 September 2025 · 20 days
It is the 5th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 839 with a page). Number 2 in Mozambique in 2025, of 313.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Gilé · 2022Gilé · 2024Ribaué · 2016Ribaué · 2017
- Burnt area
- 169,464ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 29days
- 1 Sept 2025 – 29 Sept 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- districts
- Started on
- 1 Sept
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 6,349
- in a single hotspot: 0 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 2.1GW
- detected power per day, on average
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 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.2 mm on 1 Oct.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 69,458 ha in 2016, 77,979 ha in 2017, 70,862 ha in 2018, 66,762 ha in 2019, 70,284 ha in 2020, 48,608 ha in 2021, 81,872 ha in 2022, 47,292 ha in 2023, 71,659 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 165,263 ha that had burned before.
- 40,980 ha Gilé fire, September 2022 90,638 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 32,751 ha Gilé fire, September 2024 70,839 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 31,416 ha Ribaué fire, September 2016 63,932 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 28,514 ha Ribaué fire, September 2017 53,154 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 19,145 ha Alto Molocue fire, September 2020 29,935 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 17,974 ha Alto Molocue fire, September 2022 32,621 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 16,528 ha Gilé fire, September 2018 31,968 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 13,194 ha Gilé fire, September 2018 25,284 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
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
-
Gilé where it started83,586 ha9.2 %
-
40,975 ha6.4 %
-
40,430 ha6.4 %
-
5,333 ha1.7 %
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 2025Inside the perimeter there were about 198 hectares of built-up land and about 22,000 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Sept | 28.8 °C | 24 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 2 Sept | 27.1 °C | 35 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 3 Sept | 28.3 °C | 27 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 4 Sept | 30.9 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 5 Sept | 29.6 °C | 31 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 6 Sept | 30.7 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 7 Sept | 28.9 °C | 26 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 8 Sept | 30.2 °C | 26 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 9 Sept | 29.5 °C | 35 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 10 Sept | 31.4 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 11 Sept | 30.1 °C | 27 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 12 Sept | 30.3 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 13 Sept | 29.9 °C | 24 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 14 Sept | 29.7 °C | 31 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 15 Sept | 27.7 °C | 41 % | 24 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 26 |
| 16 Sept | 30.1 °C | 33 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 17 Sept | 31.8 °C | 27 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 18 Sept | 32.5 °C | 25 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 19 Sept | 30.3 °C | 36 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 35 |
| 20 Sept | 29.1 °C | 32 % | 41 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 36 |
| 21 Sept | 29.3 °C | 32 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 22 Sept | 32.0 °C | 25 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 23 Sept | 32.3 °C | 26 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 24 Sept | 30.1 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 25 Sept | 31.6 °C | 25 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 26 Sept | 28.4 °C | 36 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 27 Sept | 25.6 °C | 50 % | 38 km/h | 0.8 mm | High 22 |
| 28 Sept | 29.4 °C | 36 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 29 Sept | 31.6 °C | 32 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 30 Sept after | 30.0 °C | 37 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 1 Oct after | 24.8 °C | 59 % | 51 km/h | 2.2 mm | Moderate 11 |
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 13 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 54 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 32: 2.1 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 · 0Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Gilé fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 September 2025 and 29 September 2025: 29 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 169,464 hectares (1,694.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Gilé (83,586 ha, 9.2 %); Alto Molocue (40,975 ha, 6.4 %); Ribaué (40,430 ha, 6.4 %); Murrupula (5,333 ha, 1.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.5 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Mozambique (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 · 4 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 6 October 2025 → 29 September 2025.
- Start date: 25 August 2025 → 1 September 2025.
- Last day with fire: 29 September 2025 → 6 October 2025.
- Start date: 1 September 2025 → 25 August 2025.
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; 16 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No 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 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.