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Milengi fire, 15 August 2018 Milengi, Chembe, Mansa

Out · last detection 10 Sept 2018, 11:13 UTC

The fire started on 15 August 2018 in Milengi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 24,279 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 58th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 8 in Zambia in 2018, of 204.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Milengi · 2017Milengi · 2016Milengi · 2016Milengi · 2017

Burnt area
24,279ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
26days
15 Aug 2018 – 9 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
15 Aug
2018
Heat detections
1,340
in a single hotspot: 123 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
490MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug9 Sept
10 Sept 2018

How it evolved, day by day

15 Aug 2018 · 13 MW · 5 16 Aug 2018 · 1,138 MW · 57 17 Aug 2018 · 768 MW · 63 18 Aug 2018 · 784 MW · 81 19 Aug 2018 · 545 MW · 61 20 Aug 2018 · 402 MW · 44 21 Aug 2018 · 342 MW · 39 22 Aug 2018 · 223 MW · 47 23 Aug 2018 · 300 MW · 46 24 Aug 2018 · 307 MW · 34 25 Aug 2018 · 124 MW · 18 26 Aug 2018 · 102 MW · 16 27 Aug 2018 · 366 MW · 35 28 Aug 2018 · 2,496 MW · 191 29 Aug 2018 · 1,063 MW · 155 30 Aug 2018 · 577 MW · 48 31 Aug 2018 · 484 MW · 40 1 Sept 2018 · 185 MW · 20 2 Sept 2018 · 295 MW · 30 3 Sept 2018 · 1,057 MW · 63 4 Sept 2018 · 872 MW · 49 5 Sept 2018 · 204 MW · 21 6 Sept 2018 · 440 MW · 37 7 Sept 2018 · 81 MW · 15 8 Sept 2018 · 9 MW · 1 9 Sept 2018 · 1 MW · 1 10 Sept 2018 · 52 MW · 6
15 Aug 19 Aug 23 Aug 27 Aug 28 Aug 31 Aug 4 Sept 8 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
51km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 10,599 ha in 2016, 13,281 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 18,743 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 15% of the area of London (243 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Milengi where it started
    24,303 ha reached on 9 Aug
    4.0 %
  2. Chembe
    88 ha reached on 13 Aug
    0.0 %
  3. Mansa
    16 ha reached on 21 Aug
    0.0 %

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 2020
Built-up area19 ha
Residents≈ 850

Inside the perimeter there were about 19 hectares of built-up land and about 850 residents (GHSL 2020, 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.

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)
15 Aug 27.4 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Aug 27.3 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
17 Aug 27.5 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
18 Aug 27.8 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Aug 27.3 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Aug 27.0 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Aug 27.0 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Aug 29.1 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Aug 29.7 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Aug 28.2 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 Aug 28.4 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Aug 28.8 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Aug 29.2 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
28 Aug 29.0 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Aug 26.9 °C 29 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Aug 27.1 °C 29 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
31 Aug 27.1 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Sept 28.2 °C 27 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Sept 29.0 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Sept 30.1 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Sept 30.2 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Sept 29.8 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
6 Sept 29.6 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
7 Sept 29.9 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 Sept 29.6 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Sept 30.3 °C 38 % 25 km/h 3.4 mm Low 11
10 Sept after 28.6 °C 39 % 36 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 20
11 Sept after 29.4 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Sept after 29.8 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Sept after 30.3 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Sept after 31.5 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 Sept after 31.8 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Sept after 31.7 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Sept after 31.5 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Sept after 32.1 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Sept after 30.8 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Aug 2018
After · 16 Sept 2018

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 1,340Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Zambia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Milengi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 August 2018 and 9 September 2018: 26 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 24,279 hectares (242.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Milengi (24,303 ha, 4.0 %); Chembe (88 ha, 0.0 %); Mansa (16 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.3 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Zambia (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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 5 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 1,340 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 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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 (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.