Sembé fire, 1 September 2026 Sembé, Epéna
The fire started on 1 September 2026 in Sembé, Congo - Brazzaville, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,313 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 10th largest in Bouenza since 2016 (of 180 with a page). Number 30 in Congo - Brazzaville in 2026, of 360.
- Burnt area
- 3,313ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 1 Sept 2026 – 10 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 1 Sept
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 47
- in a single hotspot: 104 MW
- Danger at start
- 16
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 780MW
- 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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
44% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 82 ha in 2017, 814 ha in 2021, 656 ha in 2024, 1,044 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,442 ha that had burned before.
- 1,044 ha Sembé fire, September 2025 1,819 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 814 ha Sembé fire, August 2021 1,229 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 656 ha Sembé fire, August 2024 1,133 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 82 ha Sembé fire, August 2017 1,215 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Sembé where it started2,361 ha reached on 1 Sept6.8 %
-
974 ha reached on 4 Sept0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Sept | 34.0 °C | 47 % | 20 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 2 Sept | 29.9 °C | 60 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 3 Sept | 27.2 °C | 70 % | 25 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 4 Sept | 32.5 °C | 52 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 5 Sept | 28.8 °C | 65 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 6 Sept | 30.2 °C | 57 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 7 Sept | 33.6 °C | 48 % | 23 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 8 Sept | 30.9 °C | 58 % | 24 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 9 Sept | 28.3 °C | 61 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 10 Sept | 31.6 °C | 50 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 11 Sept after | 30.3 °C | 56 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 12 Sept after | 31.0 °C | 55 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 13 Sept after | 27.8 °C | 64 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 14 Sept after | 33.7 °C | 49 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 15 Sept after | 29.7 °C | 57 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 16 Sept after | 27.9 °C | 60 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 17 Sept after | 28.7 °C | 60 % | 21 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 18 Sept after | 29.0 °C | 64 % | 24 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 19 Sept after | 29.6 °C | 61 % | 24 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 20 Sept after | 32.2 °C | 53 % | 27 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 21 Sept after | 29.0 °C | 60 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 22 Sept after | 32.4 °C | 45 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 23 Sept after | 33.0 °C | 47 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 24 Sept after | 32.0 °C | 54 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
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 9 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 104 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 66: 4.4 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 · 47Every 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 Sembé fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 September 2026 and 10 September 2026: 10 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 3,313 hectares (33.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sembé (2,361 ha, 6.8 %); Epéna (974 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 47 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Congo - Brazzaville (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 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.