How long did the Quirima fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 July 2026 and 29 July 2026: 12 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 7,824 hectares (78.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Quirima (6,764 ha, 0.7 %); Luquembo (1,107 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 32.4 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.

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.

AO · Angola · 2026-07-18 → 2026-07-29

Quirima fire, 18 July 2026 Quirima, Luquembo

Out · last detection 30 Jul 2026, 13:06 UTC

The fire started on 18 July 2026 in Quirima, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,824 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 34th largest in Malanje since 2016 (of 127 with a page). Number 224 in Angola in 2026, of 486.

Burnt area: 7,824ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 12days; 18 Jul 2026 – 29 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 18 Jul; 2026
Heat detections: 166; in a single hotspot: 72 MW
Danger at start: 42; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 1.4GW; sum of detected power

Play back 30 Jul 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Jul29 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

18192021222324252627282930

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

The weather it burned in

32°high

42km/h · peak gust

15%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

49% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 648 ha in 2016, 939 ha in 2017, 29 ha in 2018, 526 ha in 2020, 306 ha in 2021, 196 ha in 2022, 22 ha in 2023, 669 ha in 2024, 1,175 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,829 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Quirima where it started

6,764 ha reached on 17 Jul

0.7 %
Luquembo

1,107 ha reached on 18 Jul

0.1 %

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)
17 Jul	27.3 °C	20 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
18 Jul	28.0 °C	20 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
19 Jul	29.8 °C	20 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
20 Jul	29.4 °C	25 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
21 Jul	29.7 °C	28 %	16 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
22 Jul	31.3 °C	22 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
23 Jul	32.4 °C	16 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
24 Jul	32.0 °C	15 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
25 Jul	30.7 °C	23 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
26 Jul	30.1 °C	21 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
27 Jul	30.1 °C	23 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
28 Jul	29.1 °C	18 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
29 Jul	29.4 °C	15 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
30 Jul after	29.9 °C	23 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
31 Jul after	30.8 °C	21 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
1 Aug after	30.6 °C	18 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
2 Aug after	30.6 °C	19 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
3 Aug after	30.1 °C	22 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
4 Aug after	29.8 °C	24 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
5 Aug after	31.1 °C	20 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
6 Aug after	31.4 °C	18 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
7 Aug after	31.9 °C	15 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
8 Aug after	31.6 °C	18 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
9 Aug after	31.5 °C	18 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
10 Aug after	31.6 °C	17 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
11 Aug after	31.5 °C	18 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
12 Aug after	32.0 °C	15 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
13 Aug after	31.3 °C	25 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
14 Aug after	31.4 °C	31 %	39 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 40
15 Aug after	31.7 °C	28 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 11 Jul 2026

After · 5 Aug 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 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 85 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 51: 3.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak85 µg/m³

Days over the guideline16 days

PM1087 µg/m³

Optical depth0.61

WHO 15

161718192021222324252627282930311

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 · 166Every 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 Angola ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Quirima fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 July 2026 and 29 July 2026: 12 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 7,824 hectares (78.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Quirima (6,764 ha, 0.7 %); Luquembo (1,107 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 32.4 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
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

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 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.

Where it burned