TMS fire, 6 April 2026 TMS, Maforki
The fire started on 6 April 2026 in TMS, Sierra Leone, and satellites saw it burning for 29 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,073 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 50th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 1112 with a page). Number 28 in Sierra Leone in 2026, of 305.
- Burnt area
- 4,073ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 29days
- 6 Apr 2026 – 4 May 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- chiefdoms
- Started on
- 6 Apr
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 144
- in a single hotspot: 179 MW
- Danger at start
- 24
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.7GW
- 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 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.3 mm on 6 May.
This area had burned before
52% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 559 ha in 2017, 933 ha in 2019, 80 ha in 2023, 1,032 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,110 ha that had burned before.
- 933 ha Maforki fire, April 2019 3,767 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 615 ha TMS fire, April 2024 1,175 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 559 ha Maforki fire, April 2017 2,413 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 417 ha Maforki fire, April 2024 1,493 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 80 ha Maforki fire, April 2023 1,259 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
TMS where it started2,933 ha reached on 6 Apr9.7 %
-
1,166 ha reached on 9 Apr1.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Apr | 34.5 °C | 45 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 7 Apr | 34.0 °C | 48 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 8 Apr | 34.5 °C | 47 % | 37 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 26 |
| 9 Apr | 33.3 °C | 52 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 10 Apr | 34.3 °C | 49 % | 32 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 11 Apr | 30.8 °C | 59 % | 28 km/h | 2.3 mm | Low 7 |
| 12 Apr | 35.6 °C | 46 % | 32 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 13 Apr | 34.6 °C | 37 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 14 Apr | 33.5 °C | 56 % | 30 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 15 Apr | 35.6 °C | 49 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 16 Apr | 33.0 °C | 55 % | 31 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 22 |
| 17 Apr | 33.8 °C | 42 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 18 Apr | 34.5 °C | 40 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 19 Apr | 34.1 °C | 41 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 20 Apr | 33.9 °C | 47 % | 30 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 25 |
| 21 Apr | 33.8 °C | 43 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 22 Apr | 34.2 °C | 44 % | 37 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 27 |
| 23 Apr | 33.2 °C | 39 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 24 Apr | 32.0 °C | 41 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 25 Apr | 34.3 °C | 41 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 26 Apr | 32.7 °C | 46 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 27 Apr | 33.5 °C | 46 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 28 Apr | 34.1 °C | 36 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 29 Apr | 33.9 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 30 Apr | 34.8 °C | 44 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 1 May | 35.2 °C | 40 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 33 |
| 2 May | 34.9 °C | 46 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 3 May | 33.0 °C | 60 % | 31 km/h | 2.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 4 May | 34.5 °C | 52 % | 29 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 5 May after | 32.4 °C | 57 % | 37 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 6 May after | 32.6 °C | 51 % | 40 km/h | 2.3 mm | Moderate 11 |
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 4 May 2026 the air beside the fire reached 76 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 46: 3.0 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 · 144Every 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 TMS fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 6 April 2026 to 4 May 2026 (29 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 April 2026 to 28 April 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,073 hectares (40.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: TMS (2,933 ha, 9.7 %); Maforki (1,166 ha, 1.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, class 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.