Kukawa fire, 9 October 2016 Kukawa
The fire started on 9 October 2016 in Kukawa, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,489 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 64th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 457 with a page). Number 15 in Nigeria in 2016, of 198.
- Burnt area
- 5,489ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 9 Oct 2016 – 10 Oct 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 9 Oct
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 133
- in a single hotspot: 237 MW
- Danger at start
- 54
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.1GW
- 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
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Kukawa where it started5,522 ha reached on 9 Oct1.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Oct | 40.6 °C | 12 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 10 Oct | 40.9 °C | 18 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 11 Oct after | 40.0 °C | 22 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 12 Oct after | 38.8 °C | 31 % | 28 km/h | 0.8 mm | High 32 |
| 13 Oct after | 40.7 °C | 8 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 14 Oct after | 41.1 °C | 3 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 15 Oct after | 40.4 °C | 10 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 16 Oct after | 41.0 °C | 5 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 17 Oct after | 40.6 °C | 7 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 74 |
| 18 Oct after | 40.1 °C | 9 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 19 Oct after | 38.7 °C | 21 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 20 Oct after | 38.8 °C | 12 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
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.
Detections table · 133Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 27,924 haKukawa 1 October 2026 · 23 days · 11 km away
- 16,112 haKukawa5 October 2017 · 30 days · 15 km away
- 7,762 haKukawa15 October 2025 · 8 days · 15 km away
- 14,695 haKukawa 17 October 2026 · 7 days · 21 km away
- 12,874 haKukawa13 October 2018 · 14 days · 30 km away
- 47,228 haKukawa 28 September 2026 · 26 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kukawa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 October 2016 and 10 October 2016: 2 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 5,489 hectares (54.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Kukawa (5,522 ha, 1.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.9 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Nigeria (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 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 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (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.