How long did the Kukawa fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 28 September 2026 to 26 October 2026 (29 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 October 2026 to 26 October 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 49,037 hectares (490.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Kukawa (39,216 ha, 8.1 %); Monguno (7,623 ha, 3.3 %); Marte (2,471 ha, 1.2 %).

Is the Kukawa fire still active?

Yes: satellites detected fire on 26 Oct 2026, 12:44 UTC. Check the emergency service for the official status.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 41.7 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, 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.

NG · Nigeria · 2026-09-28 → 2026-10-26

Kukawa fire, 28 September 2026 Kukawa, Monguno, Marte

Burning · last detection 26 Oct 2026, 12:44 UTC

The fire started on 28 September 2026 in Kukawa, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 29 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 49,037 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Borno since 2016 (of 463 with a page). Number 2 in Nigeria in 2026, of 229.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Kukawa · 2017 Kukawa · 2020 Kukawa · 2023 Monguno · 2017

Is it still active?

Satellites detected fire on 26 Oct 2026, 12:44 UTC. Everything suggests it is still burning. Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.

Burnt area: 49,037ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 29days; 28 Sept 2026 – 26 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 3; local government areas
Started on: 28 Sept; 2026
Heat detections: 1,165; in a single hotspot: 167 MW
Danger at start: 9; Low · FWI index
Average daily power: 588MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Sept26 Oct

Play back 26 Oct 2026

How it evolved, day by day

28 Sept 7 Oct 11 Oct 15 Oct 19 Oct 23 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

48km/h · peak gust

6%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

4% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 654 ha in 2017, 319 ha in 2020, 1,112 ha in 2021, 47 ha in 2023, 421 ha in 2024, 167 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,956 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 31% of the area of London (490 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

Kukawa where it started

39,216 ha reached on 1 Oct

8.1 %
Monguno

7,623 ha reached on 28 Sept

3.3 %
Marte

2,471 ha reached on 10 Oct

1.2 %

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.

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) · forecast models, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives

Day	High	Min. humidity	Peak gust	Rain	Danger (FWI)
28 Sept	34.2 °C	44 %	17 km/h	0.8 mm	Low 9
29 Sept	31.1 °C	71 %	32 km/h	2.5 mm	Very low 3
30 Sept	32.8 °C	52 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
1 Oct	34.6 °C	44 %	21 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 14
2 Oct	35.4 °C	41 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
3 Oct	35.5 °C	36 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
4 Oct	38.0 °C	24 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
5 Oct	35.8 °C	36 %	29 km/h	0.6 mm	Moderate 20
6 Oct	38.8 °C	18 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
7 Oct	39.7 °C	18 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
8 Oct	40.2 °C	23 %	24 km/h	0.4 mm	High 34
9 Oct	41.0 °C	13 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
10 Oct	40.9 °C	10 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
11 Oct	41.7 °C	9 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
12 Oct	41.5 °C	13 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
13 Oct	41.5 °C	8 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
14 Oct	40.8 °C	10 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
15 Oct	40.4 °C	10 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 65
16 Oct	39.3 °C	13 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 65
17 Oct	38.4 °C	13 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 61
18 Oct	39.9 °C	12 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
19 Oct	39.4 °C	12 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 63
20 Oct	38.5 °C	9 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 63
21 Oct	38.5 °C	11 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 64
22 Oct	38.0 °C	9 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 68
23 Oct	37.2 °C	11 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 68
24 Oct	37.2 °C	7 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 62
25 Oct	37.7 °C	6 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 65
26 Oct	38.8 °C	8 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
27 Oct after	38.6 °C	10 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 21 Sept 2026

After · 26 Oct 2026

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 6 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 99 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 69: 4.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak99 µg/m³

Days over the guideline19 days

PM10315 µg/m³

Optical depth0.88

WHO 15

2627282930123456789101112131415161718

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 · 1,165Every 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 Nigeria ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kukawa fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 28 September 2026 to 26 October 2026 (29 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 October 2026 to 26 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 49,037 hectares (490.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Kukawa (39,216 ha, 8.1 %); Monguno (7,623 ha, 3.3 %); Marte (2,471 ha, 1.2 %).
Is the Kukawa fire still active?: Yes: satellites detected fire on 26 Oct 2026, 12:44 UTC. Check the emergency service for the official status.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 41.7 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

26 October 2026 Area: 47,830 → 49,037 ha.

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 4 October 2026 to 26 October 2026. 1,165 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
We have not matched this page with any official record.
Weather: ECMWF IFS model, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives.

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.