Kelbo fire, 22 October 2025 Dablo, Kelbo
The fire started on 22 October 2025 in Kelbo, Burkina Faso, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,455 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 15th largest in Soum since 2016 (of 134 with a page). Number 70 in Burkina Faso in 2025, of 609.
- Burnt area
- 4,455ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 22 Oct 2025 – 25 Oct 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- communes
- Started on
- 22 Oct
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 74
- in a single hotspot: 79 MW
- Danger at start
- 41
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 866MW
- 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 16 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: 1,171 ha in 2020, 118 ha in 2021, 1,594 ha in 2022, 188 ha in 2023, 381 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,209 ha that had burned before.
- 993 ha Dablo fire, November 2020 1,143 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 897 ha Dablo fire, December 2022 1,012 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 696 ha Kelbo fire, December 2022 2,046 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 381 ha Kelbo fire, October 2024 1,899 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 188 ha Kelbo fire, October 2023 1,049 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 178 ha Kelbo fire, December 2020 2,897 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 118 ha Kelbo fire, October 2021 3,643 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
3,435 ha reached on 22 Oct6.1 %
-
Kelbo where it started1,048 ha reached on 22 Oct2.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Oct | 40.3 °C | 13 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 23 Oct | 41.1 °C | 12 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 24 Oct | 39.7 °C | 12 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 25 Oct | 40.4 °C | 8 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 26 Oct after | 39.8 °C | 15 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 27 Oct after | 40.2 °C | 9 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 28 Oct after | 40.4 °C | 10 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 29 Oct after | 39.6 °C | 15 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 30 Oct after | 39.6 °C | 10 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 31 Oct after | 39.1 °C | 14 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 1 Nov after | 39.4 °C | 7 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 2 Nov after | 39.0 °C | 7 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 3 Nov after | 38.1 °C | 9 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 4 Nov after | 38.4 °C | 15 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
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 27 October 2025 the air beside the fire reached 35 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.3 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 · 74Every 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 Kelbo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 October 2025 and 25 October 2025: 4 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 4,455 hectares (44.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dablo (3,435 ha, 6.1 %); Kelbo (1,048 ha, 2.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 41.1 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Burkina Faso (OCHA COD-AB). 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 OCHA COD-AB (Institut Geographique Burkina (IGB)) (Creative Commons Attribution for Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY-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.