How long did the Kiembara fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 October 2025 and 26 October 2025: 8 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 4,050 hectares (40.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kiembara (3,049 ha, 4.1 %); Lankoué (1,025 ha, 3.4 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, class 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.

BF · Burkina Faso · 2025-10-19 → 2025-10-26

Kiembara fire, October 2025 Kiembara, Lankoué

Out · last detection 26 Oct 2025, 12:59 UTC

The fire started on 19 October 2025 in Kiembara, Burkina Faso, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,050 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Sourou since 2016 (of 90 with a page). Number 84 in Burkina Faso in 2025, of 609.

The power measured by the satellite is low (24.6 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: 4,050ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 8days; 19 Oct 2025 – 26 Oct 2025
Municipalities hit: 2; communes
Started on: 19 Oct; 2025
Heat detections: 62; in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start: 15; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 598MW; sum of detected power

Play back 26 Oct 2025

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Oct26 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

19202122232526

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

30km/h · peak gust

25%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Kiembara where it started

3,049 ha reached on 19 Oct

4.1 %
Lankoué

1,025 ha reached on 19 Oct

3.4 %

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	Danger (FWI)
19 Oct	36.0 °C	37 %	23 km/h	Moderate 15
20 Oct	36.8 °C	29 %	22 km/h	Moderate 18
21 Oct	36.1 °C	31 %	30 km/h	Moderate 21
22 Oct	37.4 °C	28 %	19 km/h	Moderate 20
23 Oct	38.0 °C	27 %	23 km/h	High 22
24 Oct	37.3 °C	31 %	25 km/h	High 24
25 Oct	37.1 °C	25 %	24 km/h	High 24
26 Oct	36.7 °C	28 %	23 km/h	High 25
27 Oct after	37.6 °C	27 %	22 km/h	High 25
28 Oct after	37.8 °C	20 %	23 km/h	High 29
29 Oct after	37.1 °C	28 %	25 km/h	High 30
30 Oct after	36.8 °C	31 %	24 km/h	High 29
31 Oct after	36.6 °C	27 %	22 km/h	High 29
1 Nov after	36.3 °C	22 %	23 km/h	High 29
2 Nov after	37.8 °C	15 %	24 km/h	High 35
3 Nov after	36.7 °C	24 %	23 km/h	High 34
4 Nov after	36.7 °C	27 %	23 km/h	High 32
5 Nov after	36.7 °C	23 %	16 km/h	High 34

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 12 Oct 2025

After · 2 Nov 2025

Before After

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 22 October 2025 the air beside the fire reached 62 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 32: 2.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak62 µg/m³

Days over the guideline8 days

PM1069 µg/m³

Optical depth0.29

WHO 15

17181920212223242526272829

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 · 62Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Burkina Faso ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kiembara fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 October 2025 and 26 October 2025: 8 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 4,050 hectares (40.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kiembara (3,049 ha, 4.1 %); Lankoué (1,025 ha, 3.4 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, class 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned