Mansa fire, 26 July 2026 Mansa, Chembe
The fire started on 26 July 2026 in Mansa, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,292 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 256th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 208 in Zambia in 2026, of 610.
- Burnt area
- 5,292ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 26 Jul 2026 – 2 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 26 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 86
- in a single hotspot: 111 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 677MW
- 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
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,838 ha in 2016, 3,856 ha in 2017, 3,404 ha in 2018, 3,234 ha in 2019, 170 ha in 2020, 115 ha in 2021, 1,081 ha in 2022, 3,047 ha in 2023, 2,554 ha in 2024, 2,118 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,240 ha that had burned before.
- 3,234 ha Mansa fire, August 2019 19,646 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,106 ha Mansa fire, August 2017 20,923 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,024 ha Mansa fire, August 2018 4,214 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,018 ha Mansa fire, August 2023 3,550 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,669 ha Mansa fire, July 2024 3,460 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,112 ha Mansa fire, August 2025 3,496 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 830 ha Mansa fire, August 2016 5,493 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 170 ha Mansa fire, August 2020 3,250 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mansa where it started5,256 ha reached on 26 Jul0.7 %
-
77 ha reached on 29 Jul0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Jul | 23.8 °C | 39 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 27 Jul | 23.8 °C | 42 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 28 Jul | 25.0 °C | 35 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 29 Jul | 25.5 °C | 35 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 30 Jul | 25.6 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 31 Jul | 25.0 °C | 28 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 1 Aug | 23.1 °C | 29 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 2 Aug | 22.7 °C | 34 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 3 Aug after | 23.2 °C | 37 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 4 Aug after | 24.2 °C | 36 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 5 Aug after | 24.6 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 6 Aug after | 25.1 °C | 39 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 7 Aug after | 25.7 °C | 41 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 8 Aug after | 25.3 °C | 42 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 9 Aug after | 26.3 °C | 42 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 10 Aug after | 28.5 °C | 34 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 11 Aug after | 28.1 °C | 32 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 12 Aug after | 27.1 °C | 33 % | 45 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 3 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 84 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 48: 3.2 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 · 86Every 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 26 July 2026 and 2 August 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 5,292 hectares (52.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mansa (5,256 ha, 0.7 %); Chembe (77 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 25.6 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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.