Lei fire, 23 January 2026 Lei
The fire started on 23 January 2026 in Lei, Sierra Leone, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,120 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 20th largest in Eastern since 2016 (of 263 with a page). Number 50 in Sierra Leone in 2026, of 305.
- Burnt area
- 3,120ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 23 Jan 2026 – 1 Feb 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- chiefdoms
- Started on
- 23 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 55
- in a single hotspot: 71 MW
- Danger at start
- 20
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 218MW
- 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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
83% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 748 ha in 2017, 902 ha in 2018, 1,656 ha in 2022, 1,029 ha in 2023, 1,886 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,579 ha that had burned before.
- 1,524 ha Lei fire, December 2024 2,053 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,107 ha Lei fire, January 2022 1,728 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,029 ha Lei fire, January 2023 1,278 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 902 ha Lei fire, January 2018 1,852 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 748 ha Lei fire, February 2017 1,206 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 549 ha Lei fire, January 2022 1,048 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 362 ha Lei fire, December 2024 1,054 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Lei where it started3,139 ha reached on 18 Jan4.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Jan | 32.5 °C | 30 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 24 Jan | 34.0 °C | 19 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 25 Jan | 32.8 °C | 19 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 26 Jan | 33.6 °C | 16 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 27 Jan | 33.7 °C | 16 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 28 Jan | 32.9 °C | 23 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 29 Jan | 33.8 °C | 19 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 30 Jan | 34.4 °C | 21 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 31 Jan | 33.2 °C | 30 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 1 Feb | 32.5 °C | 35 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 2 Feb after | 34.1 °C | 32 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 3 Feb after | 31.2 °C | 35 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 4 Feb after | 30.7 °C | 40 % | 22 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 23 |
| 5 Feb after | 34.8 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 6 Feb after | 35.7 °C | 16 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 7 Feb after | 35.8 °C | 17 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 8 Feb after | 34.8 °C | 19 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 9 Feb after | 35.4 °C | 12 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 10 Feb after | 34.3 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 11 Feb after | 34.1 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 28 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 166 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 121: 8.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 55Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lei fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 January 2026 and 1 February 2026: 10 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 3,120 hectares (31.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Lei (3,139 ha, 4.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.4 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Sierra Leone (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.
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 ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (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.