Sengbe fire, March 2025 Sengbe, Nieni
The fire started on 13 March 2025 in Sengbe, Sierra Leone, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,109 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 49th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 1112 with a page). Number 2 in Sierra Leone in 2025, of 103.
- Burnt area
- 4,109ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 13 Mar 2025 – 18 Mar 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- chiefdoms
- Started on
- 13 Mar
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 130
- in a single hotspot: 56 MW
- Danger at start
- 48
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- 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. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 20 Mar.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 538 ha in 2016, 955 ha in 2017, 908 ha in 2018, 861 ha in 2019, 996 ha in 2020, 786 ha in 2022, 3,617 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,901 ha that had burned before.
- 3,617 ha Sengbe fire, March 2023 7,774 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 996 ha Sengbe fire, March 2020 1,921 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 908 ha Nieni fire, March 2018 1,765 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 861 ha Nieni fire, March 2019 2,221 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 608 ha Sengbe fire, March 2022 3,066 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 564 ha Nieni fire, March 2017 2,507 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 538 ha Nieni fire, March 2016 1,805 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 391 ha Sengbe fire, February 2017 1,426 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Sengbe where it started3,100 ha reached on 13 Mar2.6 %
-
1,035 ha reached on 13 Mar0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Mar | 37.2 °C | 27 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 14 Mar | 37.6 °C | 24 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 15 Mar | 38.7 °C | 18 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 16 Mar | 36.9 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 17 Mar | 39.0 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 18 Mar | 36.4 °C | 30 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 19 Mar after | 33.1 °C | 42 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 33 |
| 20 Mar after | 34.8 °C | 37 % | 27 km/h | 1.8 mm | Moderate 20 |
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 16 March 2025 the air beside the fire reached 74 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 54: 3.6 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 · 130Every 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 Sengbe fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 March 2025 and 18 March 2025: 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 4,109 hectares (41.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sengbe (3,100 ha, 2.6 %); Nieni (1,035 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.0 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Sierra Leone (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 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). 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.