Kozan fire, September 2026 Kozan, İmamoğlu, Aladağ
The fire started on 7 September 2026 in Kozan, Türkiye, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 6,047 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the largest fire in Adana since 2016 (of 13 with a page). The largest in Türkiye in 2026, of 106.
- Burnt area
- 6,047ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 4days
- 7 Sept 2026 – 10 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- districts
- Started on
- 7 Sept
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 214
- in a single hotspot: 168 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.3GW
- 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 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 18 Sept.
This area had burned before
0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4 ha in 2025.
What happened to each town
-
4,252 ha reached on 7 Sept2.3 %
-
İmamoğlu 28,239 inhabitants · 16.3 km from the town1,552 ha reached on 8 Sept3.3 %
-
Aladağ 15,897 inhabitants · 11.4 km from the town252 ha reached on 8 Sept0.2 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official 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.
What burned
- Coniferous forest45 %
- Agricultural areas37 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland18 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Sept | 32.8 °C | 12 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 9 Sept | 31.9 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 10 Sept | 32.0 °C | 25 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 11 Sept after | 32.3 °C | 30 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 12 Sept after | 32.5 °C | 33 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 13 Sept after | 31.4 °C | 37 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 14 Sept after | 29.9 °C | 47 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 15 Sept after | 29.9 °C | 46 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 16 Sept after | 29.6 °C | 44 % | 32 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 28 |
| 17 Sept after | 30.5 °C | 39 % | 40 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 28 |
| 18 Sept after | 26.8 °C | 36 % | 25 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 15 |
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 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 300 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 132: 8.8 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 · 214Every 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 Kozan fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 7 September 2026 to 10 September 2026 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 8 September 2026 to 8 September 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 6,047 hectares (60.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Kozan (4,252 ha, 2.3 %); İmamoğlu (1,552 ha, 3.3 %); Aladağ (252 ha, 0.2 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 11.4 km of Aladağ. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.8 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Türkiye (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.
Emergency number: 112
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 and land cover come from the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), measured on MODIS and Sentinel-2 imagery and published under CC BY 4.0. 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 (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 slightly from each country’s official figure.