Kandi fire, 5 January 2026 Kandi, Karimama, Malanville
The fire started on 5 January 2026 in Kandi, Benin, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,854 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 200th largest in Alibori since 2016 (of 534 with a page). Number 42 in Benin in 2026, of 99.
The power measured by the satellite is low (13.6 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
- 1,854ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 5 Jan 2026 – 12 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- communes
- Started on
- 5 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 46
- in a single hotspot: 14 MW
- Energy released
- 244MW
- 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.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 384 ha in 2016, 1,403 ha in 2017, 1,093 ha in 2018, 103 ha in 2019, 106 ha in 2020, 689 ha in 2021, 1,499 ha in 2023, 171 ha in 2024, 440 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,844 ha that had burned before.
- 1,403 ha Karimama fire, November 2017 9,325 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,093 ha Kandi fire, December 2018 2,455 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 852 ha Malanville fire, January 2023 1,776 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 610 ha Kandi fire, December 2023 1,160 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 430 ha Malanville fire, January 2021 3,008 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 384 ha Malanville fire, November 2016 2,323 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 259 ha Malanville fire, December 2021 1,046 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 209 ha Kandi fire, December 2025 3,648 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Kandi where it started1,196 ha reached on 10 Jan0.3 %
-
637 ha reached on 10 Jan0.1 %
-
34 ha reached on 11 Jan0.0 %
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.
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 11 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 126 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 103: 6.8 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 · 46Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 9,325 haKarimama19 November 2017 · 12 days · 3 km away
- 7,488 haKandi15 December 2021 · 12 days · 16 km away
- 8,479 haKarimama18 January 2026 · 11 days · 19 km away
- 8,379 haKarimama2 February 2026 · 7 days · 29 km away
- 8,466 haKarimama19 December 2024 · 10 days · 30 km away
- 15,140 haKarimama29 November 2021 · 8 days · 31 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kandi fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 January 2026 to 12 January 2026 (8 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 January 2026 to 12 January 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,854 hectares (18.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Kandi (1,196 ha, 0.3 %); Karimama (637 ha, 0.1 %); Malanville (34 ha, 0.0 %).
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Benin (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
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 (Public Domain). 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.