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Mitsinjo fire, 21 August 2026 Mitsinjo

Out · last detection 18 Sept 2026, 10:45 UTC

The fire started on 21 August 2026 in Mitsinjo, Madagascar, and satellites saw it burning for 29 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,026 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 24th largest in Boeny since 2016 (of 41 with a page). Number 33 in Madagascar in 2026, of 91.

Burnt area
3,026ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
29days
21 Aug 2026 – 18 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
21 Aug
2026
Heat detections
126
in a single hotspot: 70 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Sept 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Aug18 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

212225262829311234567810111314161718

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
58km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 218 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Mitsinjo where it started
    3,044 ha reached on 21 Aug
    0.6 %

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)
21 Aug 34.6 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Aug 33.3 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Aug 32.9 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Aug 32.7 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Aug 32.1 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Aug 32.6 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Aug 32.2 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Aug 34.3 °C 25 % 58 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 56
29 Aug 32.6 °C 25 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Aug 32.5 °C 28 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
31 Aug 32.6 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
1 Sept 32.4 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Sept 32.5 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Sept 32.9 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Sept 33.5 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Sept 33.1 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Sept 32.4 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Sept 32.5 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
8 Sept 33.8 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.6 mm High 36
9 Sept 32.9 °C 32 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Sept 34.4 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Sept 32.6 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Sept 32.1 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Sept 32.7 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Sept 34.3 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Sept 34.5 °C 25 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Sept 33.9 °C 25 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 Sept 32.8 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Sept 32.9 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Sept after 33.8 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Sept after 33.9 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Sept after 33.4 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Sept after 33.1 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
23 Sept after 32.8 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Sept after 32.5 °C 43 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
25 Sept after 34.2 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Sept after 34.4 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Sept after 34.6 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Sept after 34.9 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Aug 2026
After · 25 Sept 2026

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 · Copernicus

On 19 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 41 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 22: 1.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak41 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1043 µg/m³
Optical depth0.49
19202122232425262728293031123456789101112131415161718192021
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 126Every 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 Madagascar ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mitsinjo fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 21 August 2026 to 18 September 2026 (29 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 August 2026 to 18 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,026 hectares (30.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mitsinjo (3,044 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.6 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Madagascar (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.

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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.