How long did the Ouassi fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 February 2026 to 6 March 2026 (21 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 February 2026 to 6 March 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,402 hectares (74.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ouaki (6,257 ha, 3.4 %); Ouassi (1,190 ha, 0.8 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, class Extreme.

Where does this data come from?

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

CF · Central African Republic · 2026-02-14 → 2026-03-06

Ouassi fire, February 2026 Ouaki, Ouassi

Out · last detection 6 Mar 2026, 12:03 UTC

The fire started on 14 February 2026 in Ouassi, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,402 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 15th largest in Ouham since 2016 (of 32 with a page). Number 81 in Central African Republic in 2026, of 148.

Burnt area: 7,402ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 21days; 14 Feb 2026 – 6 Mar 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; sub-prefectures
Started on: 14 Feb; 2026
Heat detections: 163; in a single hotspot: 118 MW
Danger at start: 34; High · FWI index
Energy released: 1.5GW; sum of detected power

Play back 6 Mar 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Feb6 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

14171819212425262728123456

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

The weather it burned in

39°high

41km/h · peak gust

9%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 14 Mar.

This area had burned before

47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,056 ha in 2016, 1,679 ha in 2017, 931 ha in 2019, 875 ha in 2021, 20 ha in 2023, 252 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,458 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Ouaki

6,257 ha reached on 17 Feb

3.4 %
Ouassi where it started

1,190 ha reached on 14 Feb

0.8 %

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)
14 Feb	36.1 °C	25 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
15 Feb	37.9 °C	23 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
16 Feb	37.8 °C	21 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
17 Feb	36.0 °C	14 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
18 Feb	34.4 °C	14 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
19 Feb	37.3 °C	14 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
20 Feb	37.8 °C	16 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
21 Feb	38.6 °C	17 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
22 Feb	37.5 °C	17 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
23 Feb	38.3 °C	17 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
24 Feb	36.1 °C	32 %	22 km/h	0.1 mm	High 37
25 Feb	37.8 °C	11 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
26 Feb	37.6 °C	11 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
27 Feb	37.4 °C	11 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
28 Feb	35.8 °C	9 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
1 Mar	36.7 °C	11 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
2 Mar	37.6 °C	14 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
3 Mar	38.4 °C	12 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
4 Mar	37.6 °C	12 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
5 Mar	37.9 °C	12 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
6 Mar	38.8 °C	12 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
7 Mar after	40.5 °C	12 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
8 Mar after	40.3 °C	12 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
9 Mar after	40.1 °C	12 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
10 Mar after	38.4 °C	14 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
11 Mar after	38.2 °C	23 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
12 Mar after	38.9 °C	25 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
13 Mar after	40.0 °C	24 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
14 Mar after	40.2 °C	27 %	35 km/h	1.5 mm	High 37

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 7 Feb 2026

After · 13 Mar 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 17 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 127 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 81: 5.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak127 µg/m³

Days over the guideline25 days

PM10576 µg/m³

Optical depth0.79

WHO 15

1213141516171819202122232425262728123456789

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 · 163Every 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 Central African Republic ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ouassi fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 February 2026 to 6 March 2026 (21 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 February 2026 to 6 March 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,402 hectares (74.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ouaki (6,257 ha, 3.4 %); Ouassi (1,190 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?: From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Central African Republic (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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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 ADM3 (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.

Where it burned