Masungbala fire, 23 April 2026 Masungbala, Tonko Limba, Bramaia
The fire started on 23 April 2026 in Masungbala, Sierra Leone, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,112 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the 93th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 1112 with a page). Number 51 in Sierra Leone in 2026, of 305.
- Burnt area
- 3,112ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 23 Apr 2026 – 7 May 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- chiefdoms
- Started on
- 23 Apr
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 82
- in a single hotspot: 256 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.5GW
- 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 39 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.3 mm on 15 May.
This area had burned before
48% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 770 ha in 2017, 34 ha in 2020, 54 ha in 2022, 1,084 ha in 2024, 12 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,488 ha that had burned before.
- 1,084 ha Masungbala fire, April 2024 1,198 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 770 ha Masungbala fire, April 2017 1,081 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 54 ha Tonko Limba fire, April 2022 1,065 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 34 ha Bramaia fire, April 2020 1,496 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 12 ha Tonko Limba fire, April 2025 1,432 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Masungbala where it started1,773 ha reached on 23 Apr5.7 %
-
1,351 ha reached on 23 Apr1.5 %
-
6 ha reached on 2 May0.0 %
-
3 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Apr | 35.7 °C | 33 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 24 Apr | 34.0 °C | 39 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 25 Apr | 36.1 °C | 36 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 26 Apr | 34.1 °C | 41 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 27 Apr | 34.7 °C | 42 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 28 Apr | 36.6 °C | 30 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 29 Apr | 35.8 °C | 27 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 30 Apr | 37.3 °C | 34 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 1 May | 37.4 °C | 32 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 2 May | 35.9 °C | 42 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 3 May | 34.3 °C | 53 % | 37 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 30 |
| 4 May | 36.7 °C | 42 % | 33 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 30 |
| 5 May | 34.7 °C | 46 % | 36 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 32 |
| 6 May | 34.6 °C | 45 % | 41 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 29 |
| 7 May | 35.4 °C | 42 % | 37 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 27 |
| 8 May after | 34.4 °C | 40 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 9 May after | 33.2 °C | 48 % | 16 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 26 |
| 10 May after | 35.2 °C | 44 % | 34 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 30 |
| 11 May after | 37.2 °C | 42 % | 38 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 32 |
| 12 May after | 34.1 °C | 52 % | 28 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 28 |
| 13 May after | 36.6 °C | 43 % | 40 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 31 |
| 14 May after | 34.1 °C | 53 % | 33 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 26 |
| 15 May after | 35.9 °C | 49 % | 33 km/h | 2.3 mm | Moderate 15 |
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 4 May 2026 the air beside the fire reached 95 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 45: 3.0 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 · 82Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 9,329 haTonko Limba12 April 2026 · 21 days · 18 km away
- 4,408 haTonko Limba23 April 2022 · 6 days · 20 km away
- 3,930 haSanda MagbolontApril 2026 · 24 days · 23 km away
- 4,216 haKaliahMarch 2021 · 7 days · 29 km away
- 5,988 haMoussayah15 April 2017 · 7 days · 32 km away
- 4,270 haMoussayahApril 2024 · 9 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Masungbala fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 23 April 2026 to 7 May 2026 (15 days). The perimeter dates it from 23 April 2026 to 2 May 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,112 hectares (31.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Masungbala (1,773 ha, 5.7 %); Tonko Limba (1,351 ha, 1.5 %); Bramaia (6 ha, 0.0 %); Magbema (3 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Sierra Leone (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 ADM3 (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.