How long did the Kukawa fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 1 October 2026 to 23 October 2026 (23 days). The perimeter dates it from 7 October 2026 to 22 October 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 27,924 hectares (279.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Kukawa (28,106 ha, 5.8 %).

Is the Kukawa fire still active?

Yes: satellites detected fire on 23 Oct 2026, 13:21 UTC. Check the emergency service for the official status.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 42.6 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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 · 2026-10-01 → 2026-10-23

Kukawa fire, 1 October 2026 Kukawa

Burning · last detection 23 Oct 2026, 13:21 UTC

The fire started on 1 October 2026 in Kukawa, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 27,924 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 6th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 457 with a page). Number 6 in Nigeria in 2026, of 258.

Is it still active?

Satellites detected fire on 23 Oct 2026, 13:21 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: 27,924ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 23days; 1 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; local government areas
Started on: 1 Oct; 2026
Heat detections: 748; in a single hotspot: 363 MW
Danger at start: 18; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 7.8GW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Oct 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Oct23 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

12346791011121314151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

43°high

49km/h · peak gust

8%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

13% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,549 ha in 2016, 2,273 ha in 2017, 74 ha in 2018, 103 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,650 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Kukawa where it started

28,106 ha reached on 1 Oct

5.8 %

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)
3 Oct	37.4 °C	29 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
4 Oct	39.9 °C	16 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
5 Oct	39.3 °C	27 %	25 km/h	2.5 mm	Moderate 14
6 Oct	39.0 °C	18 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
7 Oct	41.2 °C	14 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
8 Oct	40.3 °C	23 %	38 km/h	0.9 mm	High 32
9 Oct	42.6 °C	10 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
10 Oct	41.9 °C	10 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
11 Oct	42.3 °C	9 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
12 Oct	41.8 °C	11 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
13 Oct	41.8 °C	8 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
14 Oct	41.6 °C	8 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
15 Oct	40.6 °C	9 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 61
16 Oct	40.1 °C	13 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 63
17 Oct	39.4 °C	11 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
18 Oct	39.7 °C	11 %	43 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 · 24 Sept 2026

After · 23 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 124 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 88: 5.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak124 µg/m³

Days over the guideline16 days

PM10368 µg/m³

Optical depth0.96

WHO 15

1234567891011121314151617

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 · 748Every 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 1 October 2026 to 23 October 2026 (23 days). The perimeter dates it from 7 October 2026 to 22 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 27,924 hectares (279.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Kukawa (28,106 ha, 5.8 %).
Is the Kukawa fire still active?: Yes: satellites detected fire on 23 Oct 2026, 13:21 UTC. Check the emergency service for the official status.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 42.6 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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?

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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.

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.