Kukawa fire, 7 October 2018 Abadam, Kukawa
The fire started on 7 October 2018 in Kukawa, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 32,284 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 5th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 476 with a page). The largest in Nigeria in 2018, of 63.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Abadam · 2017Kaya · 2016Abadam · 2016Kukawa · 2016
- Burnt area
- 32,284ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 26days
- 7 Oct 2018 – 1 Nov 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 7 Oct
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 1,694
- in a single hotspot: 202 MW
- Danger at start
- 49
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 1.3GW
- detected power per day, on average
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 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 32,643 ha in 2016, 30,248 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 30,680 ha that had burned before.
- 21,635 ha Abadam fire, October 2017 39,930 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 14,287 ha Kaya fire, September 2016 57,635 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9,967 ha Abadam fire, October 2016 31,926 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,530 ha Kukawa fire, September 2016 5,365 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,212 ha Kaya fire, October 2017 5,500 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,612 ha Kukawa fire, October 2016 2,978 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 122 ha Fouli fire, October 2017 42,926 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
18,523 ha reached on 8 Oct4.6 %
-
Kukawa where it started7,013 ha reached on 7 Oct1.4 %
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 2020Inside the perimeter there were about 2.0 hectares of built-up land and about 400 residents (GHSL 2020, 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Oct | 40.5 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 8 Oct | 41.9 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 9 Oct | 42.1 °C | 7 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 10 Oct | 40.2 °C | 15 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 11 Oct | 41.0 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 12 Oct | 41.9 °C | 10 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 13 Oct | 39.4 °C | 20 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 14 Oct | 40.3 °C | 16 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 15 Oct | 39.3 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 16 Oct | 41.6 °C | 12 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 17 Oct | 41.3 °C | 8 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 18 Oct | 40.6 °C | 4 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 19 Oct | 40.4 °C | 3 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 75 |
| 20 Oct | 40.3 °C | 6 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 21 Oct | 41.5 °C | 5 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 22 Oct | 41.5 °C | 4 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 23 Oct | 41.7 °C | 4 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 78 |
| 24 Oct | 41.6 °C | 6 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 25 Oct | 38.7 °C | 28 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 26 Oct | 39.7 °C | 25 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 27 Oct | 39.9 °C | 15 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 28 Oct | 41.5 °C | 17 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 29 Oct | 39.4 °C | 9 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 30 Oct | 39.4 °C | 7 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 89 |
| 31 Oct | 38.7 °C | 4 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 82 |
| 1 Nov | 40.1 °C | 4 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 2 Nov after | 40.1 °C | 6 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 3 Nov after | 39.4 °C | 9 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 4 Nov after | 40.1 °C | 10 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 5 Nov after | 38.8 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 6 Nov after | 40.1 °C | 9 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 7 Nov after | 39.0 °C | 8 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 8 Nov after | 37.9 °C | 8 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 80 |
| 9 Nov after | 37.2 °C | 7 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 87 |
| 10 Nov after | 37.7 °C | 7 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 11 Nov after | 38.4 °C | 5 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
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 · 1,694Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 57,635 haKaya27 September 2016 · 44 days · 10 km away
- 39,930 haAbadamOctober 2017 · 41 days · 12 km away
- 31,926 haAbadamOctober 2016 · 48 days · 12 km away
- 43,877 haAbadam1 October 2021 · 44 days · 13 km away
- 42,926 haFouli2 October 2017 · 20 days · 13 km away
- 27,753 haAbadam21 October 2019 · 21 days · 16 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kukawa fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 7 October 2018 to 1 November 2018 (26 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 October 2018 to 25 October 2018.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 32,284 hectares (322.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Abadam (18,523 ha, 4.6 %); Kukawa (7,013 ha, 1.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 42.1 °C, humidity dropped to 3 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 89, 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 25 October 2018 → 1 November 2018.
- Start date: 12 October 2018 → 7 October 2018.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 12 October 2018 to 25 October 2018. 1,694 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 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.