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Lunga fire, 15 October 2025 Lunga, Lavushimanda

Out · last detection 27 Oct 2025, 10:52 UTC

The fire started on 15 October 2025 in Lunga, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,281 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 472th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 222 in Zambia in 2025, of 271.

Burnt area
3,281ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
15 Oct 2025 – 26 Oct 2025
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
15 Oct
2025
Heat detections
152
in a single hotspot: 62 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Oct 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Oct26 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

151617181920212223242527

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
42km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

57% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 13 ha in 2016, 711 ha in 2017, 712 ha in 2021, 1,403 ha in 2022, 1,342 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,886 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Lunga where it started
    3,249 ha reached on 9 Oct
    0.8 %
  2. Lavushimanda
    56 ha reached on 27 Oct
    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)
15 Oct 33.1 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Oct 34.3 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Oct 34.6 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
18 Oct 32.7 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
19 Oct 33.3 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Oct 32.8 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Oct 33.5 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Oct 32.9 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Oct 30.6 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Oct 32.4 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Oct 33.5 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
26 Oct 33.1 °C 35 % 27 km/h 1.9 mm Moderate 20
27 Oct after 30.7 °C 38 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
28 Oct after 35.4 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Oct after 33.0 °C 30 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Oct after 34.6 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
31 Oct after 34.4 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Nov after 34.1 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Nov after 34.8 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Nov after 32.4 °C 28 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
4 Nov after 33.2 °C 30 % 52 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 46
5 Nov after 34.3 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Oct 2025
After · 2 Nov 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 25 October 2025 the air beside the fire reached 40 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 32: 2.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak40 µg/m³
Days over the guideline8 days
PM1040 µg/m³
Optical depth1.00
1314151617181920212223242526272829
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 · 152Every 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 Zambia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Lunga fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 October 2025 and 26 October 2025: 12 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 3,281 hectares (32.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lunga (3,249 ha, 0.8 %); Lavushimanda (56 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.6 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Zambia (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.

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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 (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.