Nambuangongo fire, October 2025 Nambuangongo
The fire started on 1 October 2025 in Nambuangongo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,334 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 19th largest in Bengo since 2016 (of 20 with a page). Number 162 in Angola in 2025, of 191.
- Burnt area
- 5,334ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 1 Oct 2025 – 5 Oct 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 1 Oct
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 69
- in a single hotspot: 104 MW
- Danger at start
- 12
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 940MW
- 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: 4.4 mm on 11 Oct.
This area had burned before
72% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,759 ha in 2018, 2,895 ha in 2020, 1,357 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,846 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Nambuangongo where it started5,371 ha reached on 30 Sept0.9 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Oct | 26.2 °C | 50 % | 29 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 2 Oct | 26.9 °C | 52 % | 22 km/h | 1.3 mm | Low 8 |
| 3 Oct | 26.2 °C | 60 % | 23 km/h | 1.1 mm | Low 7 |
| 4 Oct | 29.4 °C | 49 % | 31 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 5 Oct | 27.6 °C | 54 % | 25 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 6 Oct after | 27.2 °C | 60 % | 25 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 7 Oct after | 26.7 °C | 62 % | 26 km/h | 0.8 mm | Low 11 |
| 8 Oct after | 26.9 °C | 58 % | 26 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 9 Oct after | 27.3 °C | 57 % | 25 km/h | 0.9 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 10 Oct after | 28.9 °C | 51 % | 32 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 11 Oct after | 26.2 °C | 60 % | 27 km/h | 4.4 mm | Very low 3 |
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 2 October 2025 the air beside the fire reached 170 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 92: 6.1 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 · 69Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 10,092 haNambuangongo21 September 2026 · 5 days · 3 km away
- 9,169 haNambuangongo20 September 2026 · 6 days · 27 km away
- 21,223 haNambuangongo23 September 2025 · 13 days · 28 km away
- 8,489 haDembos-Quibaxe25 September 2025 · 11 days · 35 km away
- 8,565 haDande23 September 2026 · 27 days · 38 km away
- 16,350 haDembos-QuibaxeSeptember 2026 · 8 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Nambuangongo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 October 2025 and 5 October 2025: 5 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 5,334 hectares (53.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Nambuangongo (5,371 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.4 °C, humidity dropped to 49 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 16, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Angola (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 (Public Domain). 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.