How long did the Olorunsogo fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 13 January 2026 to 29 January 2026 (17 days). The perimeter dates it from 20 January 2026 to 27 January 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 8,894 hectares (88.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 5 municipalities: Olorunsogo (5,779 ha, 3.5 %); Atisbo (2,967 ha, 1.2 %); Ori Ire (100 ha, 0.0 %); Saki East (94 ha, 0.1 %); Orelope (12 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.

Where does this data come from?

From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Nigeria (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

NG · Nigeria · 2026-01-13 → 2026-01-29

Olorunsogo fire, 13 January 2026 Olorunsogo, Atisbo, Ori Ire

Out · last detection 29 Jan 2026, 13:19 UTC

The fire started on 13 January 2026 in Olorunsogo, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,894 hectares from heat detections, spread across 5 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Oyo since 2016 (of 16 with a page). Number 26 in Nigeria in 2026, of 313.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Atisbo · 2026 Ori Ire · 2026 Atisbo · 2016 Atisbo · 2026

Burnt area: 8,894ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 17days; 13 Jan 2026 – 29 Jan 2026
Municipalities hit: 5; local government areas
Started on: 13 Jan; 2026
Heat detections: 197; in a single hotspot: 59 MW
Danger at start: 42; Very high · FWI index
Average daily power: 129MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Jan29 Jan

Play back 29 Jan 2026

How it evolved, day by day

13 Jan 16 Jan 24 Jan 26 Jan 29 Jan

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

The weather it burned in

37°high

34km/h · peak gust

10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 2 Feb.

This area had burned before

8% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 33 ha in 2016, 608 ha in 2023, 99 ha in 2025.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 5.6% of the area of London (89 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

Olorunsogo where it started

5,779 ha reached on 13 Jan

3.5 %
Atisbo

2,967 ha reached on 24 Jan

1.2 %
Ori Ire

100 ha

0.0 %
Saki East

94 ha reached on 26 Jan

0.1 %
Orelope

12 ha reached on 26 Jan

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 2025

Built-up area< 0.1 ha

Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (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)
13 Jan	35.1 °C	21 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
14 Jan	34.8 °C	24 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
15 Jan	34.5 °C	27 %	14 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
16 Jan	35.6 °C	23 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
17 Jan	35.1 °C	29 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
18 Jan	34.8 °C	35 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
19 Jan	35.7 °C	34 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
20 Jan	36.1 °C	22 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
21 Jan	35.3 °C	14 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
22 Jan	33.6 °C	16 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
23 Jan	35.3 °C	15 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
24 Jan	36.3 °C	19 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
25 Jan	36.8 °C	15 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
26 Jan	36.7 °C	10 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
27 Jan	35.6 °C	19 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
28 Jan	35.6 °C	29 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
29 Jan	36.1 °C	28 %	15 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
30 Jan after	35.8 °C	23 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
31 Jan after	36.9 °C	25 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
1 Feb after	35.5 °C	38 %	29 km/h	0.1 mm	High 35
2 Feb after	37.8 °C	27 %	31 km/h	1.0 mm	High 34

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 6 Jan 2026

After · 5 Feb 2026

Before After

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 27 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 100 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 79: 5.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak100 µg/m³

Days over the guideline13 days

PM10482 µg/m³

Optical depth1.25

WHO 15

18192021222324252627282930

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 · 197Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Nigeria ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Olorunsogo fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 13 January 2026 to 29 January 2026 (17 days). The perimeter dates it from 20 January 2026 to 27 January 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 8,894 hectares (88.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 5 municipalities: Olorunsogo (5,779 ha, 3.5 %); Atisbo (2,967 ha, 1.2 %); Ori Ire (100 ha, 0.0 %); Saki East (94 ha, 0.1 %); Orelope (12 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?: From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Nigeria (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.

Emergency number: 112 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

27 October 2026 Last day with fire: 27 January 2026 → 29 January 2026.
27 October 2026 Start date: 20 January 2026 → 13 January 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.

Report an error

What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

How we know this

Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 20 January 2026 to 27 January 2026. 197 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.

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 International (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.

Where it burned