Iringa fire, 9 July 2025 Iringa
The fire started on 9 July 2025 in Iringa, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,579 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 55th largest in Iringa since 2016 (of 71 with a page). Number 115 in Tanzania in 2025, of 161.
The power measured by the satellite is low (19.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 3,579ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 9 Jul 2025 – 15 Jul 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 9 Jul
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 176
- in a single hotspot: 20 MW
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 618MW
- 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 47 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,780 ha in 2016, 235 ha in 2017, 1,605 ha in 2018, 554 ha in 2020, 956 ha in 2021, 2,744 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,467 ha that had burned before.
- 2,780 ha Iringa fire, August 2016 138,240 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,744 ha Iringa fire, July 2024 54,511 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,605 ha Iringa fire, September 2018 113,445 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 695 ha Mbarali fire, September 2021 140,758 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 554 ha Iringa fire, August 2020 4,635 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Iringa where it started3,601 ha reached on 8 Jul0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Jul | 26.8 °C | 25 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 10 Jul | 27.4 °C | 29 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 11 Jul | 26.6 °C | 33 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 12 Jul | 26.9 °C | 35 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 13 Jul | 27.7 °C | 30 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 14 Jul | 27.5 °C | 30 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 15 Jul | 27.7 °C | 31 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 16 Jul after | 26.8 °C | 35 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 17 Jul after | 27.5 °C | 36 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 18 Jul after | 27.2 °C | 38 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 19 Jul after | 27.8 °C | 32 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 20 Jul after | 27.2 °C | 26 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 21 Jul after | 26.5 °C | 29 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 22 Jul after | 27.3 °C | 32 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 23 Jul after | 26.1 °C | 36 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 24 Jul after | 26.9 °C | 32 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 25 Jul after | 28.5 °C | 28 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
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 12 July 2025 the air beside the fire reached 40 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 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 · 176Every 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 Iringa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 July 2025 and 15 July 2025: 7 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 3,579 hectares (35.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Iringa (3,601 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 27.7 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Tanzania (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 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.