Marte fire, March 2026 Marte, Ngala
The fire started on 23 March 2026 in Marte, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,474 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 65th largest in Borno since 2016 (of 461 with a page). Number 46 in Nigeria in 2026, of 262.
- Burnt area
- 5,474ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 23 Mar 2026 – 29 Mar 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 23 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 100
- in a single hotspot: 70 MW
- Danger at start
- 65
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.0GW
- 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
65% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 528 ha in 2017, 83 ha in 2018, 557 ha in 2020, 1,989 ha in 2021, 2,032 ha in 2023, 754 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,562 ha that had burned before.
- 1,513 ha Marte fire, March 2021 6,070 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 669 ha Ngala fire, March 2025 7,169 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 557 ha Ngala fire, December 2020 3,147 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 502 ha Ngala fire, December 2023 2,075 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 266 ha Marte fire, February 2023 4,374 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 243 ha Ngala fire, October 2021 3,910 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 157 ha Ngala fire, November 2017 3,390 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 125 ha Ngala fire, January 2023 4,182 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Marte where it started3,944 ha reached on 24 Mar1.9 %
-
1,561 ha reached on 24 Mar0.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Mar | 41.1 °C | 8 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 24 Mar | 42.3 °C | 8 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 25 Mar | 43.3 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 26 Mar | 40.6 °C | 17 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 74 |
| 27 Mar | 41.5 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 28 Mar | 43.0 °C | 9 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 29 Mar | 42.1 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 30 Mar after | 40.3 °C | 21 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 31 Mar after | 39.5 °C | 22 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 1 Apr after | 40.4 °C | 11 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 2 Apr after | 36.2 °C | 7 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 3 Apr after | 37.9 °C | 10 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 4 Apr after | 39.0 °C | 9 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 5 Apr after | 38.1 °C | 9 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 6 Apr after | 42.0 °C | 13 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 7 Apr after | 42.3 °C | 11 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 8 Apr after | 40.1 °C | 12 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
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 31 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 69 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 53: 3.5 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 · 100Every 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 23 March 2026 and 29 March 2026: 7 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 5,474 hectares (54.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Marte (3,944 ha, 1.9 %); Ngala (1,561 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 43.3 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 74, class Very 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.