Milange fire, 7 October 2025 Milange, Morrumbala
The fire started on 7 October 2025 in Milange, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,853 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 555th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 200 in Mozambique in 2025, of 313.
- Burnt area
- 3,853ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 7 Oct 2025 – 16 Oct 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 7 Oct
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 169
- in a single hotspot: 51 MW
- Danger at start
- 20
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 18 Oct.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,787 ha in 2016, 2,421 ha in 2017, 3,111 ha in 2018, 2,862 ha in 2019, 2,548 ha in 2020, 3,433 ha in 2022, 1,936 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,870 ha that had burned before.
- 3,787 ha Morrumbala fire, September 2016 75,456 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,433 ha Milange fire, October 2022 14,998 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,899 ha Morrumbala fire, September 2018 38,678 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,862 ha Milange fire, September 2019 16,916 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,421 ha Morrumbala fire, September 2017 12,018 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,200 ha Milange fire, September 2020 6,794 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Milange where it started3,859 ha reached on 3 Oct0.7 %
-
21 ha reached on 7 Oct0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Oct | 32.5 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 8 Oct | 30.8 °C | 37 % | 34 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 22 |
| 9 Oct | 31.0 °C | 40 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 10 Oct | 30.6 °C | 32 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 11 Oct | 31.3 °C | 33 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 12 Oct | 33.0 °C | 35 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 13 Oct | 34.1 °C | 29 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 14 Oct | 33.6 °C | 24 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 15 Oct | 34.5 °C | 23 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 16 Oct | 35.0 °C | 18 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 17 Oct after | 32.8 °C | 25 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 18 Oct after | 29.3 °C | 43 % | 32 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
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 15 October 2025 the air beside the fire reached 65 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 34: 2.3 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 · 169Every 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 Milange fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 October 2025 and 16 October 2025: 10 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 3,853 hectares (38.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Milange (3,859 ha, 0.7 %); Morrumbala (21 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Mozambique (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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.