Mansa fire, 28 July 2025 Mansa
The fire started on 28 July 2025 in Mansa, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,987 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 358th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 148 in Zambia in 2025, of 271.
The power measured by the satellite is low (22.3 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 3,987ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 28 Jul 2025 – 6 Aug 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 28 Jul
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 208
- in a single hotspot: 22 MW
- Danger at start
- 35
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.1GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,879 ha in 2016, 1,416 ha in 2017, 2,089 ha in 2018, 2,704 ha in 2019, 3,077 ha in 2020, 1,853 ha in 2021, 990 ha in 2022, 2,707 ha in 2023, 2,575 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,980 ha that had burned before.
- 2,109 ha Mansa fire, July 2016 20,463 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,034 ha Mansa fire, July 2018 13,615 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,721 ha Mansa fire, July 2019 5,146 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,329 ha Mansa fire, August 2017 3,492 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,250 ha Mansa fire, July 2024 3,132 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 418 ha Mansa fire, August 2022 3,911 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 27 ha Mansa fire, August 2022 4,890 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9 ha Mansa fire, July 2016 8,299 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mansa where it started4,014 ha reached on 22 Jul0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Jul | 22.8 °C | 35 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 29 Jul | 21.9 °C | 44 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 30 Jul | 22.9 °C | 33 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 31 Jul | 23.4 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 1 Aug | 24.7 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 2 Aug | 23.8 °C | 31 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 3 Aug | 22.5 °C | 34 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 4 Aug | 23.1 °C | 32 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 5 Aug | 24.5 °C | 34 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 6 Aug | 27.0 °C | 30 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 7 Aug after | 26.7 °C | 31 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 8 Aug after | 27.2 °C | 27 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 9 Aug after | 26.9 °C | 29 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 10 Aug after | 27.2 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 11 Aug after | 27.1 °C | 24 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 12 Aug after | 25.8 °C | 29 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 13 Aug after | 25.3 °C | 32 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 14 Aug after | 26.0 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 15 Aug after | 27.1 °C | 33 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 16 Aug after | 27.7 °C | 27 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
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 7 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 64 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 37: 2.5 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 · 208Every 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 Mansa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 July 2025 and 6 August 2025: 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 3,987 hectares (39.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mansa (4,014 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 27.0 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class High.
- 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.
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 (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.