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Luena fire, 14 September 2025 Luena

Out · last detection 7 Oct 2025, 12:07 UTC

The fire started on 14 September 2025 in Luena, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,812 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 6th largest in Moxico since 2016 (of 108 with a page). Number 32 in Angola in 2025, of 191.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Luena · 2026Luena · 2022Luena · 2025Luena · 2024

Burnt area
13,812ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
23days
14 Sept 2025 – 6 Oct 2025
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
14 Sept
2025
Heat detections
557
in a single hotspot: 298 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
561MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Sept6 Oct
7 Oct 2025

How it evolved, day by day

14 Sept 2025 · 27 MW · 13 15 Sept 2025 · 820 MW · 24 16 Sept 2025 · 1,403 MW · 26 17 Sept 2025 · 2,441 MW · 48 18 Sept 2025 · 1,389 MW · 62 19 Sept 2025 · 1,043 MW · 64 20 Sept 2025 · 96 MW · 5 21 Sept 2025 · 74 MW · 7 22 Sept 2025 · 1,533 MW · 42 23 Sept 2025 · 367 MW · 19 24 Sept 2025 · 606 MW · 42 25 Sept 2025 · 411 MW · 14 26 Sept 2025 · 620 MW · 31 27 Sept 2025 · 415 MW · 15 28 Sept 2025 · 421 MW · 23 29 Sept 2025 · 291 MW · 25 30 Sept 2025 · 107 MW · 4 1 Oct 2025 · 133 MW · 8 3 Oct 2025 · 63 MW · 4 4 Oct 2025 · 304 MW · 22 5 Oct 2025 · 30 MW · 3 6 Oct 2025 · 78 MW · 3 7 Oct 2025 · 238 MW · 6
14 Sept 17 Sept 18 Sept 22 Sept 26 Sept 30 Sept 5 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

35°high
46km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 13.6 mm on 22 Oct.

This area had burned before

63% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,366 ha in 2017, 1,123 ha in 2018, 822 ha in 2019, 2,852 ha in 2020, 2,002 ha in 2021, 3,417 ha in 2022, 3,675 ha in 2023, 4,085 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,650 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 8.7% of the area of London (138 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

  1. Luena where it started
    13,883 ha reached on 7 Sept
    0.3 %

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 2025
Built-up area4.9 ha
Residents≈ 1,000

Inside the perimeter there were about 4.9 hectares of built-up land and about 1,000 residents (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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 Sept 32.7 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Sept 32.5 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Sept 32.2 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Sept 32.8 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Sept 33.1 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Sept 30.3 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
13 Sept 30.4 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Sept 29.9 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Sept 33.0 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Sept 33.9 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
17 Sept 33.6 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Sept 34.5 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Sept 33.8 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Sept 33.2 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Sept 32.7 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Sept 32.6 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 39
23 Sept 32.1 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Sept 35.3 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Sept 33.1 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Sept 31.5 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.1 mm High 38
27 Sept 32.5 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Sept 32.2 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.6 mm High 34
29 Sept 27.3 °C 43 % 34 km/h 3.7 mm Low 7
30 Sept 30.7 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
1 Oct 29.9 °C 37 % 40 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 19
2 Oct 29.3 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm High 25
3 Oct 32.1 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Oct 33.1 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Oct 32.0 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Oct 33.3 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Oct after 34.4 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
8 Oct after 35.0 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Oct after 32.9 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Oct after 32.2 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
11 Oct after 31.0 °C 33 % 35 km/h 2.2 mm Moderate 16
12 Oct after 28.5 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 18
13 Oct after 32.2 °C 28 % 34 km/h 2.4 mm Moderate 16
14 Oct after 31.5 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
15 Oct after 32.9 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Oct after 32.7 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
17 Oct after 32.8 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Oct after 31.4 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Oct after 34.0 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Oct after 34.6 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Oct after 32.9 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 39
22 Oct after 32.1 °C 29 % 31 km/h 13.6 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Sept 2025
After · 13 Oct 2025

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 21 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 82 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 61: 4.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak82 µg/m³
Days over the guideline27 days
PM1084 µg/m³
Optical depth1.22
12131415161718192021222324252627282930123456789
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 · 557Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Angola ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Luena fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 September 2025 and 6 October 2025: 23 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 13,812 hectares (138.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Luena (13,883 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.3 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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

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

No changes since 24 October 2026.

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.

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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 557 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 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

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 (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.