Rafaï fire, 5 January 2026 Rafaï
The fire started on 5 January 2026 in Rafaï, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,703 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 33th largest in Mbomou since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 39 in Central African Republic in 2026, of 148.
- Burnt area
- 10,703ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 14days
- 5 Jan 2026 – 18 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 5 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 323
- in a single hotspot: 47 MW
- Danger at start
- 45
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.1GW
- 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 26 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 12,401 ha in 2016, 891 ha in 2017, 20 ha in 2018, 15,921 ha in 2020, 12 ha in 2022, 2,638 ha in 2023, 588 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,770 ha that had burned before.
- 8,363 ha Yalinga fire, December 2020 979,715 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,557 ha Rafaï fire, January 2020 131,336 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,706 ha Rafaï fire, January 2016 125,550 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,603 ha Rafaï fire, March 2023 5,721 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,035 ha Rafaï fire, February 2023 6,776 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 433 ha Yalinga fire, January 2017 238,204 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Rafaï where it started10,787 ha reached on 5 Jan0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Jan | 35.5 °C | 13 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 6 Jan | 35.8 °C | 12 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 7 Jan | 35.7 °C | 13 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 8 Jan | 36.5 °C | 13 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 9 Jan | 35.9 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 10 Jan | 34.4 °C | 17 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 11 Jan | 35.1 °C | 16 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 12 Jan | 34.9 °C | 16 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 13 Jan | 36.0 °C | 14 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 14 Jan | 34.8 °C | 15 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 15 Jan | 35.0 °C | 14 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 16 Jan | 34.9 °C | 14 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 17 Jan | 35.1 °C | 12 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 18 Jan | 35.9 °C | 12 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 19 Jan after | 36.3 °C | 13 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 20 Jan after | 36.6 °C | 14 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 21 Jan after | 37.1 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 22 Jan after | 36.6 °C | 16 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 23 Jan after | 35.5 °C | 24 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 24 Jan after | 37.1 °C | 17 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 25 Jan after | 38.0 °C | 12 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 26 Jan after | 38.1 °C | 10 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 27 Jan after | 36.7 °C | 13 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 28 Jan after | 36.0 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
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 11 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 60 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 49: 3.3 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 · 323Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Rafaï fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 January 2026 to 18 January 2026 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 January 2026 to 15 January 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 10,703 hectares (107.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Rafaï (10,787 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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
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 (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.