Poli fire, 2 January 2026 Poli
The fire started on 2 January 2026 in Poli, Cameroon, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,201 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 26th largest in North since 2016 (of 1648 with a page). Number 18 in Cameroon in 2026, of 378.
- Burnt area
- 5,201ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 2 Jan 2026 – 7 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 2 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 65
- in a single hotspot: 63 MW
- Danger at start
- 45
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 467MW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,438 ha in 2016, 967 ha in 2017, 974 ha in 2018, 461 ha in 2019, 1,329 ha in 2020, 1,189 ha in 2021, 1,026 ha in 2022, 1,461 ha in 2023, 1,859 ha in 2024, 92 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,757 ha that had burned before.
- 1,859 ha Poli fire, December 2024 3,659 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,652 ha Poli fire, December 2016 26,671 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,461 ha Poli fire, December 2023 2,488 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 856 ha Poli fire, December 2018 1,543 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 835 ha Poli fire, December 2022 2,543 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 786 ha Poli fire, December 2016 1,455 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 702 ha Poli fire, December 2021 1,220 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 647 ha Poli fire, December 2017 1,148 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Poli where it started5,230 ha reached on 2 Jan0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Jan | 36.5 °C | 19 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 3 Jan | 35.3 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 4 Jan | 35.5 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 5 Jan | 33.9 °C | 16 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 6 Jan | 35.2 °C | 16 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 7 Jan | 36.3 °C | 20 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 8 Jan after | 34.4 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 9 Jan after | 34.6 °C | 15 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 10 Jan after | 33.9 °C | 17 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 11 Jan after | 33.7 °C | 21 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 12 Jan after | 33.8 °C | 20 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 13 Jan after | 34.5 °C | 18 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 14 Jan after | 33.4 °C | 20 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 15 Jan after | 33.4 °C | 20 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 16 Jan after | 34.7 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 17 Jan after | 35.3 °C | 17 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
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 4 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 60 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 47: 3.1 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 · 65Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 7,115 haPoli21 January 2020 · 7 days · 12 km away
- 26,671 haPoli10 December 2016 · 13 days · 15 km away
- 22,166 haTcholliré2 December 2017 · 14 days · 19 km away
- 6,762 haTcholliré9 December 2021 · 4 days · 30 km away
- 9,667 haPoli3 January 2026 · 9 days · 34 km away
- 9,527 haPoli28 December 2019 · 18 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Poli fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 January 2026 and 7 January 2026: 6 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 5,201 hectares (52.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Poli (5,230 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Cameroon (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 ADM3 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.