How long did the Massango fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 26 August 2026 to 7 September 2026 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 26 August 2026 to 6 September 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,460 hectares (54.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Massango (4,028 ha, 0.5 %); Calandula (1,464 ha, 0.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, class High.

Where does this data come from?

From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Angola (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

AO · Angola · 2026-08-26 → 2026-09-07

Massango fire, 26 August 2026 Massango, Calandula

Out · last detection 7 Sept 2026, 00:01 UTC

The fire started on 26 August 2026 in Massango, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,460 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 97th largest in Malanje since 2016 (of 127 with a page). Number 414 in Angola in 2026, of 485.

Burnt area: 5,460ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 13days; 26 Aug 2026 – 7 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 26 Aug; 2026
Heat detections: 123; in a single hotspot: 98 MW
Danger at start: 31; High · FWI index
Energy released: 2.7GW; sum of detected power

Play back 7 Sept 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Aug7 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

2627282930123457

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

33°high

40km/h · peak gust

28%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 8 Sept.

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 139 ha in 2016, 254 ha in 2017, 527 ha in 2018, 156 ha in 2019, 915 ha in 2021, 1,063 ha in 2022, 1,339 ha in 2023, 3,287 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,178 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Massango where it started

4,028 ha reached on 26 Aug

0.5 %
Calandula

1,464 ha reached on 27 Aug

0.2 %

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 Aug	30.3 °C	39 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
27 Aug	32.3 °C	35 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
28 Aug	28.9 °C	42 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
29 Aug	29.2 °C	41 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
30 Aug	29.6 °C	39 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
31 Aug	28.3 °C	44 %	27 km/h	0.2 mm	High 28
1 Sept	33.2 °C	28 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
2 Sept	33.2 °C	31 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
3 Sept	28.2 °C	51 %	30 km/h	6.9 mm	Low 5
4 Sept	30.3 °C	43 %	29 km/h	2.9 mm	Low 7
5 Sept	30.0 °C	45 %	26 km/h	1.2 mm	Moderate 12
6 Sept	30.0 °C	44 %	32 km/h	0.5 mm	Moderate 19
7 Sept	31.0 °C	40 %	30 km/h	0.3 mm	High 22
8 Sept after	32.5 °C	35 %	36 km/h	1.9 mm	Moderate 15

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

↔

Before · 19 Aug 2026

After · 14 Sept 2026

Before After

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 · Copernicus

On 9 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 175 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 110: 7.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak175 µg/m³

Days over the guideline18 days

PM10180 µg/m³

Optical depth3.02

WHO 15

242526272829303112345678910

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 123Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.

⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.

Date and time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Angola ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Massango fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 26 August 2026 to 7 September 2026 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 26 August 2026 to 6 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,460 hectares (54.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Massango (4,028 ha, 0.5 %); Calandula (1,464 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, class High.
Where does this data come from?: From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Angola (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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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

What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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 (Public Domain). 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.

Where it burned