Ikom fire, February 2026 Ikom, Ogoja, Obubra
The fire started on 18 February 2026 in Ikom, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,162 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the largest fire in Cross River since 2016 (of 37 with a page). Number 25 in Nigeria in 2026, of 262.
- Burnt area
- 8,162ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 18 Feb 2026 – 28 Feb 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- local government areas
- Started on
- 18 Feb
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 187
- in a single hotspot: 65 MW
- Danger at start
- 29
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.2GW
- 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 27 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,257 ha in 2016, 3,177 ha in 2017, 1,106 ha in 2018, 2 ha in 2019, 2,524 ha in 2020, 3,078 ha in 2021, 3,172 ha in 2022, 689 ha in 2023, 1,622 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,689 ha that had burned before.
- 2,048 ha Ikom fire, January 2022 2,426 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,106 ha Ogoja fire, January 2018 5,222 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,103 ha Ikom fire, January 2021 3,107 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,081 ha Ikom fire, January 2016 2,007 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 642 ha Ogoja fire, January 2016 3,514 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 117 ha Ogoja fire, January 2022 2,510 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2 ha Ogoja fire, February 2019 4,069 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Ikom where it started6,832 ha reached on 19 Feb3.7 %
-
1,186 ha reached on 24 Feb1.3 %
-
201 ha reached on 25 Feb0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Feb | 34.5 °C | 28 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 19 Feb | 35.5 °C | 28 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 20 Feb | 36.7 °C | 22 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 21 Feb | 36.0 °C | 34 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 22 Feb | 36.5 °C | 36 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 23 Feb | 34.8 °C | 36 % | 31 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 36 |
| 24 Feb | 35.6 °C | 30 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 25 Feb | 37.0 °C | 13 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 26 Feb | 35.5 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 27 Feb | 35.5 °C | 35 % | 24 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 33 |
| 28 Feb | 36.2 °C | 21 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 1 Mar after | 36.2 °C | 28 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 2 Mar after | 36.0 °C | 35 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 3 Mar after | 37.0 °C | 26 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 4 Mar after | 36.3 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 38 |
| 5 Mar after | 36.9 °C | 31 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 6 Mar after | 36.9 °C | 34 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 7 Mar after | 37.5 °C | 35 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 8 Mar after | 38.4 °C | 30 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 9 Mar after | 39.3 °C | 31 % | 41 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very high 45 |
| 10 Mar after | 37.5 °C | 38 % | 38 km/h | 0.5 mm | Very high 40 |
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 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 128 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 89: 5.9 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 · 187Every 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 Ikom fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 February 2026 and 28 February 2026: 11 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 8,162 hectares (81.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Ikom (6,832 ha, 3.7 %); Ogoja (1,186 ha, 1.3 %); Obubra (201 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 32 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 Nigeria (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.
Emergency number: 112
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 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). 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.