Massangam fire, 9 February 2025 Massangam
The fire started on 9 February 2025 in Massangam, Cameroon, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,970 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 2th largest in West since 2016 (of 35 with a page). Number 4 in Cameroon in 2025, of 396.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 17,970ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 30days
- 9 Feb 2025 – 10 Mar 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 9 Feb
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 1,524
- in a single hotspot: 160 MW
- Danger at start
- 47
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 602MW
- detected power per day, on average
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. Rain came after the fire: 5.1 mm on 20 Mar.
This area had burned before
50% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,266 ha in 2019, 1,834 ha in 2020, 3,504 ha in 2021, 4,558 ha in 2022, 7,176 ha in 2023, 3,878 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,947 ha that had burned before.
- 4,777 ha Massangam fire, February 2023 6,781 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,491 ha Massangam fire, February 2022 3,614 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,398 ha Massangam fire, February 2023 3,457 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,379 ha Massangam fire, February 2021 3,372 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,067 ha Massangam fire, March 2022 2,530 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,834 ha Massangam fire, February 2020 3,529 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,558 ha Massangam fire, February 2024 2,033 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,425 ha Massangam fire, February 2024 1,482 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Massangam where it started18,087 ha reached on 9 Feb8.1 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Inside the perimeter there were about 0.21 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Feb | 36.3 °C | 18 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 10 Feb | 35.8 °C | 27 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 11 Feb | 35.8 °C | 20 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 12 Feb | 35.4 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 13 Feb | 35.9 °C | 20 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 14 Feb | 35.6 °C | 20 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 15 Feb | 35.0 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 16 Feb | 35.6 °C | 13 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 17 Feb | 36.0 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 18 Feb | 36.3 °C | 23 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 19 Feb | 34.6 °C | 28 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 20 Feb | 35.4 °C | 23 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 21 Feb | 35.5 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 22 Feb | 36.0 °C | 22 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 23 Feb | 36.1 °C | 23 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 24 Feb | 35.8 °C | 25 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 25 Feb | 33.8 °C | 44 % | 33 km/h | 4.1 mm | Low 10 |
| 26 Feb | 31.4 °C | 46 % | 28 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 27 Feb | 34.2 °C | 31 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 28 Feb | 35.8 °C | 19 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 1 Mar | 36.5 °C | 22 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 2 Mar | 36.7 °C | 22 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 3 Mar | 36.9 °C | 23 % | 44 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 49 |
| 4 Mar | 33.8 °C | 38 % | 33 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 36 |
| 5 Mar | 34.1 °C | 36 % | 34 km/h | 2.9 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 6 Mar | 34.5 °C | 25 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 7 Mar | 35.7 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 8 Mar | 37.4 °C | 22 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 9 Mar | 36.2 °C | 23 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 10 Mar | 34.6 °C | 37 % | 29 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 35 |
| 11 Mar after | 34.9 °C | 33 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 12 Mar after | 36.9 °C | 19 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 13 Mar after | 38.4 °C | 15 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 14 Mar after | 34.6 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 15 Mar after | 37.6 °C | 21 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 16 Mar after | 37.4 °C | 21 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 17 Mar after | 36.3 °C | 20 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 18 Mar after | 34.6 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 40 |
| 19 Mar after | 35.5 °C | 33 % | 30 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 33 |
| 20 Mar after | 34.4 °C | 38 % | 31 km/h | 5.1 mm | Low 9 |
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 27 February 2025 the air beside the fire reached 130 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 102: 6.8 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 · 1,524Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,781 haMassangam7 February 2023 · 25 days · 6 km away
- 3,529 haMassangamFebruary 2020 · 22 days · 6 km away
- 38,532 haMassangam10 February 2026 · 27 days · 8 km away
- 3,614 haMassangam18 February 2022 · 18 days · 8 km away
- 3,457 haMassangam2 February 2023 · 29 days · 13 km away
- 4,260 haMassangam9 February 2025 · 36 days · 15 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Massangam fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 9 February 2025 to 10 March 2025 (30 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 February 2025 to 3 March 2025.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 17,970 hectares (179.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Massangam (18,087 ha, 8.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Cameroon (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
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 3 March 2025 → 10 March 2025.
- Start date: 16 February 2025 → 9 February 2025.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 16 February 2025 to 3 March 2025. 1,524 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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 ADM3 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.