Milengi fire, 26 July 2024 Milengi, Samfya
The fire started on 26 July 2024 in Milengi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 29 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 30,020 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 39th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 534 with a page). Number 5 in Zambia in 2024, of 160.
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- Burnt area
- 30,020ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 29days
- 26 Jul 2024 – 23 Aug 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 26 Jul
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 1,211
- in a single hotspot: 166 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 822MW
- 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
89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8,434 ha in 2016, 13,806 ha in 2017, 12,809 ha in 2018, 5,375 ha in 2019, 3,276 ha in 2020, 10,851 ha in 2021, 9,334 ha in 2022, 9,250 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 26,652 ha that had burned before.
- 6,639 ha Milengi fire, August 2018 10,954 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,582 ha Milengi fire, August 2017 14,856 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,824 ha Milengi fire, August 2023 5,427 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,711 ha Milengi fire, August 2018 6,614 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,459 ha Milengi fire, August 2016 6,690 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,311 ha Milengi fire, August 2021 6,534 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,300 ha Milengi fire, August 2023 15,153 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,277 ha Milengi fire, August 2017 3,948 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 started24,368 ha reached on 29 Jul4.0 %
-
5,827 ha reached on 30 Jul1.8 %
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 2025Inside the perimeter there were about 39 hectares of built-up land and about 2,200 residents (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Jul | 28.4 °C | 16 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 27 Jul | 28.0 °C | 19 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 28 Jul | 27.9 °C | 18 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 29 Jul | 28.7 °C | 17 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 30 Jul | 29.5 °C | 17 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 31 Jul | 28.9 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 1 Aug | 27.3 °C | 21 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 2 Aug | 27.2 °C | 28 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 3 Aug | 27.9 °C | 28 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 4 Aug | 28.8 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 5 Aug | 30.0 °C | 19 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 6 Aug | 29.6 °C | 22 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 7 Aug | 28.4 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 8 Aug | 28.5 °C | 22 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 9 Aug | 28.5 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 10 Aug | 28.9 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 11 Aug | 28.7 °C | 22 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 12 Aug | 29.0 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 13 Aug | 28.9 °C | 23 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 14 Aug | 29.3 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 15 Aug | 30.9 °C | 17 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 16 Aug | 27.5 °C | 30 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 17 Aug | 27.2 °C | 30 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 18 Aug | 27.8 °C | 25 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 19 Aug | 28.3 °C | 22 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 20 Aug | 27.8 °C | 27 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 21 Aug | 27.3 °C | 28 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 22 Aug | 28.2 °C | 22 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 23 Aug | 26.4 °C | 28 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 24 Aug after | 27.2 °C | 27 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 25 Aug after | 27.0 °C | 29 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 26 Aug after | 28.0 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 27 Aug after | 28.8 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 28 Aug after | 30.5 °C | 24 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 29 Aug after | 31.6 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 30 Aug after | 30.0 °C | 30 % | 43 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 44 |
| 31 Aug after | 28.3 °C | 38 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 1 Sept after | 24.2 °C | 44 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 2 Sept after | 27.8 °C | 26 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
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 16 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 76 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 48: 3.2 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 · 1,211Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 169,563 haMilengi3 August 2026 · 20 days · 9 km away
- 15,153 haMilengi10 August 2023 · 24 days · 25 km away
- 167,326 haMilengi17 July 2026 · 54 days · 26 km away
- 25,575 haMilengi23 August 2020 · 24 days · 33 km away
- 21,038 haSamfya13 August 2018 · 18 days · 35 km away
- 41,279 haMilengi6 August 2021 · 38 days · 37 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 26 July 2024 to 23 August 2024 (29 days). The perimeter dates it from 26 July 2024 to 17 August 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 30,020 hectares (300.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Milengi (24,368 ha, 4.0 %); Samfya (5,827 ha, 1.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.9 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 17 August 2024 → 23 August 2024.
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; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 26 July 2024 to 17 August 2024. 1,211 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 2025, 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.