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Kukawa fire, 5 October 2017 Kukawa

Out · last detection 4 Nov 2017, 13:14 UTC

The fire started on 5 October 2017 in Kukawa, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,112 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 10th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 464 with a page). Number 3 in Nigeria in 2017, of 143.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Kukawa · 2026Kukawa · 2018Abadam · 2017Kukawa · 2025

Burnt area
16,112ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
30days
5 Oct 2017 – 3 Nov 2017
Municipalities hit
1
local government areas
Started on
5 Oct
2017
Heat detections
893
in a single hotspot: 0 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
247MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Oct3 Nov
4 Nov 2017

How it evolved, day by day

5 Oct 2017 · 184 MW · 30 6 Oct 2017 · 118 MW · 18 7 Oct 2017 · 103 MW · 18 8 Oct 2017 · 92 MW · 12 9 Oct 2017 · 218 MW · 37 10 Oct 2017 · 336 MW · 41 11 Oct 2017 · 532 MW · 83 12 Oct 2017 · 228 MW · 18 13 Oct 2017 · 501 MW · 70 14 Oct 2017 · 88 MW · 16 15 Oct 2017 · 511 MW · 53 16 Oct 2017 · 701 MW · 77 17 Oct 2017 · 600 MW · 62 18 Oct 2017 · 496 MW · 46 19 Oct 2017 · 241 MW · 33 20 Oct 2017 · 295 MW · 48 21 Oct 2017 · 388 MW · 32 22 Oct 2017 · 380 MW · 44 23 Oct 2017 · 225 MW · 18 24 Oct 2017 · 103 MW · 16 25 Oct 2017 · 45 MW · 6 27 Oct 2017 · 133 MW · 12 28 Oct 2017 · 221 MW · 16 29 Oct 2017 · 164 MW · 30 30 Oct 2017 · 240 MW · 24 31 Oct 2017 · 94 MW · 10 1 Nov 2017 · 114 MW · 14 2 Nov 2017 · 17 MW · 3 3 Nov 2017 · 35 MW · 5 4 Nov 2017 · 8 MW · 1
5 Oct 10 Oct 15 Oct 16 Oct 20 Oct 25 Oct 31 Oct

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

42°high
45km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 10% of the area of London (161 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Kukawa where it started
    16,218 ha
    3.3 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2015
Built-up area1.2 ha
Residents≈ 400

Inside the perimeter there were about 1.2 hectares of built-up land and about 400 residents (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
5 Oct 41.3 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
6 Oct 41.1 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
7 Oct 40.6 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Oct 41.2 °C 8 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
9 Oct 41.5 °C 6 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Oct 41.6 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
11 Oct 40.5 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
12 Oct 38.5 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
13 Oct 38.4 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
14 Oct 37.7 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
15 Oct 37.9 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
16 Oct 38.4 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
17 Oct 38.3 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
18 Oct 37.3 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
19 Oct 38.0 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
20 Oct 38.5 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Oct 39.5 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
22 Oct 40.1 °C 8 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
23 Oct 39.7 °C 8 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
24 Oct 38.9 °C 8 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
25 Oct 39.7 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
26 Oct 38.5 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
27 Oct 37.2 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
28 Oct 38.4 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
29 Oct 38.2 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
30 Oct 37.6 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
31 Oct 38.0 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
1 Nov 38.5 °C 8 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
2 Nov 38.7 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
3 Nov 37.1 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
4 Nov after 36.6 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
5 Nov after 35.7 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
6 Nov after 35.7 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
7 Nov after 36.7 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
8 Nov after 37.1 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
9 Nov after 36.3 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
10 Nov after 35.0 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
11 Nov after 36.8 °C 8 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
12 Nov after 38.1 °C 9 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
13 Nov after 37.4 °C 9 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Sept 2017
After · 10 Nov 2017

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 · 0Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Nigeria ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kukawa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 October 2017 and 3 November 2017: 30 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 16,112 hectares (161.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kukawa (16,218 ha, 3.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.6 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 73, class Very 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.