Skip to content
worldfires
en
ET · Ethiopia · →

Itang fire, 12 December 2025 Itang

Out · last detection 11 Jan 2026, 10:34 UTC

The fire started on 12 December 2025 in Itang, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 31 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,819 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 110th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 18 in Ethiopia in 2025, of 127.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Lare · 2026Itang · 2026

Burnt area
5,819ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
31days
12 Dec 2025 – 11 Jan 2026
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
12 Dec
2025
Heat detections
186
in a single hotspot: 76 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Average daily power
62MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Dec11 Jan
11 Jan 2026

How it evolved, day by day

12 Dec 2025 · 69 MW · 5 13 Dec 2025 · 16 MW · 2 14 Dec 2025 · 4 MW · 1 15 Dec 2025 · 37 MW · 3 16 Dec 2025 · 18 MW · 1 17 Dec 2025 · 5 MW · 2 18 Dec 2025 · 42 MW · 5 19 Dec 2025 · 19 MW · 2 20 Dec 2025 · 15 MW · 4 21 Dec 2025 · 328 MW · 18 24 Dec 2025 · 45 MW · 8 25 Dec 2025 · 408 MW · 19 26 Dec 2025 · 57 MW · 8 27 Dec 2025 · 72 MW · 6 28 Dec 2025 · 13 MW · 3 29 Dec 2025 · 11 MW · 4 30 Dec 2025 · 32 MW · 8 2 Jan 2026 · 15 MW · 5 3 Jan 2026 · 45 MW · 7 4 Jan 2026 · 65 MW · 13 5 Jan 2026 · 93 MW · 12 6 Jan 2026 · 27 MW · 2 7 Jan 2026 · 19 MW · 3 8 Jan 2026 · 15 MW · 3 9 Jan 2026 · 178 MW · 18 10 Jan 2026 · 5 MW · 2 11 Jan 2026 · 32 MW · 5
12 Dec 16 Dec 20 Dec 25 Dec 26 Dec 30 Dec 5 Jan 9 Jan

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
28km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

50% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,094 ha in 2016, 277 ha in 2018, 1,561 ha in 2020, 1,007 ha in 2021, 1,143 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,923 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 3.7% of the area of London (58 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. Itang where it started
    5,858 ha reached on 12 Dec
    2.6 %

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 area0.45 ha
Residents≈ 150

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.45 hectares of built-up land and about 150 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)
12 Dec 36.3 °C 28 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Dec 35.7 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
14 Dec 34.7 °C 31 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Dec 35.2 °C 31 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Dec 34.3 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Dec 34.6 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 Dec 33.6 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
19 Dec 35.3 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Dec 35.2 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Dec 35.1 °C 28 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Dec 34.6 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Dec 35.4 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Dec 37.2 °C 29 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Dec 37.4 °C 23 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 Dec 37.2 °C 19 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Dec 37.9 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Dec 38.1 °C 19 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Dec 35.7 °C 25 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Dec 35.2 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Dec 36.4 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Jan 35.6 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Jan 35.1 °C 20 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
3 Jan 37.1 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Jan 36.7 °C 21 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Jan 37.3 °C 17 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Jan 38.0 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Jan 36.7 °C 25 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
8 Jan 38.0 °C 18 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
9 Jan 37.9 °C 20 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Jan 37.4 °C 16 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Jan 37.3 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
12 Jan after 37.5 °C 22 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Jan after 36.6 °C 24 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Jan after 37.2 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Jan after 36.5 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Jan after 34.6 °C 24 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Jan after 36.1 °C 22 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Jan after 37.3 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Jan after 37.2 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Jan after 38.3 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Jan after 38.2 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Dec 2025
After · 18 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 7 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 62 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 44: 2.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak62 µg/m³
Days over the guideline36 days
PM1065 µg/m³
Optical depth0.76
101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567891011121314
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 · 186Every 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 Ethiopia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Itang fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 December 2025 and 11 January 2026: 31 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 5,819 hectares (58.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Itang (5,858 ha, 2.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 28 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 Ethiopia (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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 186 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.