How long did the Luchazes fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 September 2025 and 24 September 2025: 9 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 7,092 hectares (70.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Luchazes (6,933 ha, 0.2 %); Bundas (220 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 2 % and gusts hit 51 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 Angola (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

AO · Angola · 2025-09-16 → 2025-09-24

Luchazes fire, 16 September 2025 Luchazes, Bundas

Out · last detection 24 Sept 2025, 12:50 UTC

The fire started on 16 September 2025 in Luchazes, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,092 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 36th largest in Moxico since 2016 (of 108 with a page). Number 94 in Angola in 2025, of 191.

Burnt area: 7,092ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 9days; 16 Sept 2025 – 24 Sept 2025
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 16 Sept; 2025
Heat detections: 207; in a single hotspot: 181 MW
Danger at start: 67; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 3.7GW; sum of detected power

Play back 24 Sept 2025

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Sept24 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

161718192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

37°high

51km/h · peak gust

2%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,103 ha in 2016, 1,524 ha in 2018, 1,053 ha in 2019, 277 ha in 2021, 1,088 ha in 2022, 3,784 ha in 2023, 1,090 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,447 ha that had burned before.

814 ha Luchazes fire, September 2019 17,059 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Luchazes where it started

6,933 ha reached on 16 Sept

0.2 %
Bundas

220 ha reached on 17 Sept

0.0 %

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)
16 Sept	36.8 °C	2 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 67
17 Sept	36.9 °C	5 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
18 Sept	36.8 °C	8 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 67
19 Sept	35.6 °C	10 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 68
20 Sept	34.0 °C	17 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
21 Sept	34.1 °C	19 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
22 Sept	35.9 °C	12 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
23 Sept	34.1 °C	12 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
24 Sept	36.2 °C	10 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
25 Sept after	36.6 °C	8 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
26 Sept after	35.0 °C	14 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
27 Sept after	33.8 °C	20 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
28 Sept after	34.3 °C	12 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
29 Sept after	34.7 °C	4 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
30 Sept after	34.8 °C	14 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
1 Oct after	34.3 °C	18 %	43 km/h	0.2 mm	Extreme 55
2 Oct after	34.7 °C	17 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
3 Oct after	36.6 °C	9 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
4 Oct after	35.5 °C	10 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 9 Sept 2025

After · 1 Oct 2025

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 14 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 42 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 34: 2.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak42 µg/m³

Days over the guideline14 days

PM1043 µg/m³

Optical depth0.88

WHO 15

1415161718192021222324252627

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 · 207Every 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 Angola ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Luchazes fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 September 2025 and 24 September 2025: 9 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 7,092 hectares (70.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Luchazes (6,933 ha, 0.2 %); Bundas (220 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 2 % and gusts hit 51 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 Angola (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

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.

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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 (Public Domain). 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.

Where it burned