Mafa fire, 16 October 2026 Mafa, Marte
The fire started on 16 October 2026 in Mafa, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,683 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 62th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 461 with a page). Number 43 in Nigeria in 2026, of 262.
The power measured by the satellite is low (19.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Is it still active?
No detections since 23 Oct 2026, 12:44 UTC. That usually means no flame is visible from space any more, although hotspots may remain. 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
- 5,683ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 16 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 16 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 80
- in a single hotspot: 19 MW
- Danger at start
- 30
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 665MW
- 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 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
57% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 341 ha in 2016, 1,009 ha in 2018, 678 ha in 2019, 2,063 ha in 2020, 725 ha in 2023, 433 ha in 2024, 1,326 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,249 ha that had burned before.
- 1,902 ha Mafa fire, November 2020 16,241 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,319 ha Mafa fire, October 2025 7,180 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 161 ha Mafa fire, October 2020 3,321 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 23 ha Mafa fire, November 2016 2,271 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mafa where it started5,721 ha reached on 16 Oct1.7 %
-
0 ha0.0 %
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 Oct | 37.1 °C | 24 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 17 Oct | 36.3 °C | 24 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 18 Oct | 37.0 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 19 Oct | 36.9 °C | 20 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 20 Oct | 35.6 °C | 20 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
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 17 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 80 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 54: 3.6 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 · 80Every 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 Mafa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 October 2026 and 23 October 2026: 8 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 5,683 hectares (56.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mafa (5,721 ha, 1.7 %); Marte (0 ha, 0.0 %).
- Is the Mafa fire still active?
- No fire detections since 23 Oct 2026, 12:44 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class High.
- 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
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 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.