Kasunko fire, 14 February 2026 Kasunko, Tambakha
The fire started on 14 February 2026 in Kasunko, Sierra Leone, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,404 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 77th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 1112 with a page). Number 38 in Sierra Leone in 2026, of 305.
- Burnt area
- 3,404ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 14 Feb 2026 – 19 Feb 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- chiefdoms
- Started on
- 14 Feb
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 70
- in a single hotspot: 50 MW
- Danger at start
- 44
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 511MW
- 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 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
68% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,011 ha in 2016, 1,603 ha in 2018, 293 ha in 2019, 719 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,321 ha that had burned before.
- 1,558 ha Kasunko fire, January 2018 2,267 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,011 ha Kasunko fire, January 2016 2,214 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 711 ha Kasunko fire, January 2025 1,193 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 166 ha Kasunko fire, January 2019 4,768 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 127 ha Tambakha fire, February 2019 5,742 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 44 ha Kasunko fire, January 2018 2,706 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7 ha Tambakha fire, January 2025 1,015 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Kasunko where it started3,310 ha reached on 13 Feb3.5 %
-
117 ha0.0 %
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Feb | 35.6 °C | 23 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 15 Feb | 37.4 °C | 18 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 16 Feb | 38.6 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 17 Feb | 38.9 °C | 8 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 18 Feb | 36.2 °C | 19 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 19 Feb | 37.9 °C | 16 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 20 Feb after | 37.5 °C | 18 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 21 Feb after | 37.7 °C | 18 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 22 Feb after | 38.9 °C | 13 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 23 Feb after | 38.7 °C | 15 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 24 Feb after | 37.4 °C | 19 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 25 Feb after | 37.1 °C | 20 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 26 Feb after | 36.3 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 27 Feb after | 35.8 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 28 Feb after | 34.4 °C | 30 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 1 Mar after | 32.8 °C | 32 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
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 18 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 111 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 86: 5.8 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 · 70Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,058 haKasunko24 January 2026 · 5 days · 9 km away
- 4,768 haKasunkoJanuary 2019 · 9 days · 10 km away
- 5,742 haTambakha11 February 2019 · 14 days · 13 km away
- 4,462 haTambakha29 January 2016 · 5 days · 13 km away
- 4,443 haKasunko3 February 2017 · 7 days · 17 km away
- 4,232 haTambakha31 January 2017 · 8 days · 18 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kasunko fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 February 2026 and 19 February 2026: 6 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 3,404 hectares (34.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kasunko (3,310 ha, 3.5 %); Tambakha (117 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Sierra Leone (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 ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (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.