Marte fire, January 2026 Marte
The fire started on 26 January 2026 in Marte, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,825 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 224th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 461 with a page). Number 140 in Nigeria in 2026, of 262.
- Burnt area
- 2,825ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 26 Jan 2026 – 29 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 26 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 67
- in a single hotspot: 33 MW
- Danger at start
- 69
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 576MW
- 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
86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 689 ha in 2016, 812 ha in 2019, 1,021 ha in 2020, 814 ha in 2021, 1,253 ha in 2023, 398 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,432 ha that had burned before.
- 743 ha Marte fire, October 2021 3,796 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 398 ha Ngala fire, March 2025 7,169 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 71 ha Ngala fire, October 2021 3,910 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 10 ha Marte fire, October 2023 3,056 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Marte where it started2,842 ha reached on 27 Jan1.4 %
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 Jan | 35.5 °C | 8 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 27 Jan | 33.2 °C | 12 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 28 Jan | 34.3 °C | 8 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 29 Jan | 36.3 °C | 8 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 30 Jan after | 36.4 °C | 9 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 31 Jan after | 37.1 °C | 6 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 1 Feb after | 37.8 °C | 6 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 2 Feb after | 38.4 °C | 9 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 3 Feb after | 39.0 °C | 9 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 4 Feb after | 39.9 °C | 8 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 5 Feb after | 39.9 °C | 8 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 6 Feb after | 39.8 °C | 8 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 7 Feb after | 40.2 °C | 8 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 8 Feb after | 39.1 °C | 5 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
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 28 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 133 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 104: 7.0 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 · 67Every 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 Marte fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 January 2026 and 29 January 2026: 4 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 2,825 hectares (28.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Marte (2,842 ha, 1.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 69, class Extreme.
- 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.