How long did the Tilo fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 12 February 2026 to 7 March 2026 (24 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 February 2026 to 5 March 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 26,827 hectares (268.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tilo (23,159 ha, 15 %); Guiffa (3,844 ha, 2.5 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very high.

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.

CF · Central African Republic · 2026-02-12 → 2026-03-07

Tilo fire, February 2026 Tilo, Guiffa

Out · last detection 7 Mar 2026, 11:44 UTC

The fire started on 12 February 2026 in Tilo, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 26,827 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Kémo since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 13 in Central African Republic in 2026, of 148.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Ndenga · 2023 Ndenga · 2026 Mala · 2016 Ndenga · 2026

Burnt area: 26,827ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 24days; 12 Feb 2026 – 7 Mar 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; sub-prefectures
Started on: 12 Feb; 2026
Heat detections: 765; in a single hotspot: 96 MW
Danger at start: 6; Low · FWI index
Average daily power: 370MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Feb7 Mar

Play back 7 Mar 2026

How it evolved, day by day

12 Feb 16 Feb 21 Feb 25 Feb 28 Feb 3 Mar 6 Mar

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

The weather it burned in

38°high

36km/h · peak gust

12%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 14 Mar.

This area had burned before

61% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,845 ha in 2016, 2,465 ha in 2017, 6,165 ha in 2019, 1,074 ha in 2020, 1,792 ha in 2021, 2,554 ha in 2022, 5,890 ha in 2023, 5,273 ha in 2024, 158 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 16,283 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 17% of the area of London (268 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

Tilo where it started

23,159 ha reached on 12 Feb

15 %
Guiffa

3,844 ha reached on 14 Feb

2.5 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025

Built-up area11 ha

Residents≈ 4,400

Inside the perimeter there were about 11 hectares of built-up land and about 4,400 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
12 Feb	34.8 °C	38 %	31 km/h	12.3 mm	Low 6
13 Feb	34.7 °C	41 %	25 km/h	5.8 mm	Very low 5
14 Feb	34.2 °C	36 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
15 Feb	35.1 °C	33 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
16 Feb	35.1 °C	31 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
17 Feb	35.5 °C	27 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
18 Feb	33.4 °C	19 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
19 Feb	34.2 °C	27 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
20 Feb	35.6 °C	27 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
21 Feb	37.5 °C	24 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
22 Feb	34.5 °C	33 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
23 Feb	33.0 °C	42 %	28 km/h	3.0 mm	Low 9
24 Feb	34.6 °C	35 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
25 Feb	35.4 °C	21 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
26 Feb	36.1 °C	14 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
27 Feb	36.7 °C	15 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
28 Feb	35.1 °C	12 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
1 Mar	35.0 °C	13 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
2 Mar	36.2 °C	17 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
3 Mar	36.7 °C	24 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
4 Mar	35.4 °C	28 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
5 Mar	35.9 °C	24 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
6 Mar	36.3 °C	29 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
7 Mar	37.2 °C	30 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
8 Mar after	38.4 °C	18 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
9 Mar after	39.0 °C	16 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
10 Mar after	36.0 °C	17 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
11 Mar after	35.7 °C	31 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
12 Mar after	36.2 °C	33 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
13 Mar after	36.7 °C	36 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
14 Mar after	36.1 °C	42 %	35 km/h	1.5 mm	High 24

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 5 Feb 2026

After · 14 Mar 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 1 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 119 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 81: 5.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak119 µg/m³

Days over the guideline29 days

PM10266 µg/m³

Optical depth0.89

WHO 15

1011121314151617181920212223242526272812345678910

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 · 765Every 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 Central African Republic ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Tilo fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 12 February 2026 to 7 March 2026 (24 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 February 2026 to 5 March 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 26,827 hectares (268.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tilo (23,159 ha, 15 %); Guiffa (3,844 ha, 2.5 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very high.
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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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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What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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How we know this

Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 19 February 2026 to 5 March 2026. 765 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
We have not matched this page with any official record.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.

Where it burned