How long did the Grootfontein fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 21 October 2026 to 24 October 2026 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 October 2026 to 23 October 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,356 hectares (43.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Grootfontein (4,375 ha, 0.4 %).

Is the Grootfontein fire still active?

Yes: satellites detected fire on 24 Oct 2026, 00:41 UTC. Check the emergency service for the official status.

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.

NA · Namibia · 2026-10-21 → 2026-10-24

Grootfontein fire, October 2026 Grootfontein

Burning · last detection 24 Oct 2026, 00:41 UTC

The fire started on 21 October 2026 in Grootfontein, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,356 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 71th largest in Otjozondjupa since 2016 (of 214 with a page). Number 55 in Namibia in 2026, of 155.

Is it still active?

Satellites detected fire on 24 Oct 2026, 00:41 UTC. Everything suggests it is still burning. 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.

Burnt area: 4,356ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 4days; 21 Oct 2026 – 24 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; constituencies
Started on: 21 Oct; 2026
Heat detections: 101; in a single hotspot: 43 MW
Energy released: 1.4GW; sum of detected power

Play back 24 Oct 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Oct24 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

21222324

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

What happened to each town

Grootfontein where it started

4,375 ha reached on 21 Oct

0.4 %

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.

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 14 Oct 2026

After · 23 Oct 2026

Before After

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 101Every 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

All fires in Namibia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Grootfontein fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 21 October 2026 to 24 October 2026 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 October 2026 to 23 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,356 hectares (43.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Grootfontein (4,375 ha, 0.4 %).
Is the Grootfontein fire still active?: Yes: satellites detected fire on 24 Oct 2026, 00:41 UTC. Check the emergency service for the official status.
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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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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.