Milengi fire, 6 August 2021 Milengi, Chembe, Mansa
The fire started on 6 August 2021 in Milengi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 38 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 41,279 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 29th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 534 with a page). Number 4 in Zambia in 2021, of 213.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 41,279ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 38days
- 6 Aug 2021 – 12 Sept 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- districts
- Started on
- 6 Aug
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 2,026
- in a single hotspot: 188 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 674MW
- 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.
This area had burned before
97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 19,577 ha in 2016, 22,160 ha in 2017, 26,654 ha in 2018, 25,313 ha in 2019, 26,180 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 40,177 ha that had burned before.
- 18,715 ha Milengi fire, August 2019 29,893 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 15,589 ha Milengi fire, August 2018 24,279 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 14,391 ha Milengi fire, August 2020 25,575 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 13,128 ha Milengi fire, August 2017 37,052 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,799 ha Milengi fire, August 2017 9,191 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,768 ha Milengi fire, August 2016 6,944 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,703 ha Milengi fire, August 2016 9,146 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,084 ha Milengi fire, August 2020 6,706 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
-
Milengi where it started35,572 ha reached on 6 Aug5.8 %
-
5,776 ha reached on 10 Aug2.7 %
-
159 ha reached on 11 Aug0.0 %
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 2020Inside the perimeter there were about 54 hectares of built-up land and about 3,000 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Aug | 27.5 °C | 29 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 7 Aug | 27.6 °C | 26 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 8 Aug | 27.7 °C | 27 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 9 Aug | 27.3 °C | 27 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 10 Aug | 28.4 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 11 Aug | 26.3 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 12 Aug | 27.2 °C | 25 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 13 Aug | 28.7 °C | 24 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 14 Aug | 27.8 °C | 27 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 15 Aug | 27.3 °C | 31 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 16 Aug | 26.0 °C | 34 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 17 Aug | 28.1 °C | 32 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 18 Aug | 29.0 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 19 Aug | 30.3 °C | 25 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 20 Aug | 30.7 °C | 21 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 21 Aug | 30.0 °C | 22 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 22 Aug | 30.6 °C | 27 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 23 Aug | 25.9 °C | 45 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 24 Aug | 29.2 °C | 33 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 25 Aug | 30.1 °C | 27 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 26 Aug | 29.9 °C | 25 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 27 Aug | 30.3 °C | 30 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 28 Aug | 31.9 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 29 Aug | 32.0 °C | 19 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 30 Aug | 30.6 °C | 26 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 31 Aug | 30.1 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 1 Sept | 30.5 °C | 21 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 2 Sept | 30.4 °C | 22 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 3 Sept | 30.6 °C | 23 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 4 Sept | 30.6 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 5 Sept | 30.8 °C | 20 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 6 Sept | 30.7 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 7 Sept | 31.2 °C | 21 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 8 Sept | 31.7 °C | 20 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 9 Sept | 31.4 °C | 19 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 10 Sept | 29.0 °C | 26 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 11 Sept | 26.4 °C | 32 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 12 Sept | 28.5 °C | 30 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 13 Sept after | 30.9 °C | 29 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 14 Sept after | 31.8 °C | 30 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 15 Sept after | 32.6 °C | 24 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 16 Sept after | 33.3 °C | 22 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 17 Sept after | 33.8 °C | 21 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 18 Sept after | 33.3 °C | 21 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 19 Sept after | 30.5 °C | 28 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 20 Sept after | 31.5 °C | 23 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 21 Sept after | 33.5 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 22 Sept after | 31.4 °C | 22 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
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.
Detections table · 2,026Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 25,575 haMilengi23 August 2020 · 24 days · 8 km away
- 29,893 haMilengi10 August 2019 · 38 days · 11 km away
- 167,326 haMilengi17 July 2026 · 54 days · 12 km away
- 169,563 haMilengi3 August 2026 · 20 days · 28 km away
- 24,279 haMilengi9 August 2018 · 37 days · 35 km away
- 37,052 haMilengi16 August 2017 · 31 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Milengi fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 6 August 2021 to 12 September 2021 (38 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 August 2021 to 6 September 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 41,279 hectares (412.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Milengi (35,572 ha, 5.8 %); Chembe (5,776 ha, 2.7 %); Mansa (159 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.0 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class Extreme.
- 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 6 September 2021 → 12 September 2021.
- Start date: 13 August 2021 → 6 August 2021.
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; 5 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 13 August 2021 to 6 September 2021. 2,026 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.
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.