How long did the TMS fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 April 2026 to 29 April 2026 (16 days). The perimeter dates it from 14 April 2026 to 22 April 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,166 hectares (31.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: TMS (1,626 ha, 5.4 %); Dibia (1,515 ha, 8.1 %); Buya Romende (45 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.

SL · Sierra Leone · 2026-04-14 → 2026-04-29

TMS fire, 14 April 2026 TMS, Dibia, Buya Romende

Out · last detection 29 Apr 2026, 13:54 UTC

The fire started on 14 April 2026 in TMS, Sierra Leone, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,166 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 91th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 1112 with a page). Number 47 in Sierra Leone in 2026, of 305.

Burnt area: 3,166ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 16days; 14 Apr 2026 – 29 Apr 2026
Municipalities hit: 3; chiefdoms
Started on: 14 Apr; 2026
Heat detections: 86; in a single hotspot: 200 MW
Danger at start: 25; High · FWI index
Energy released: 1.8GW; sum of detected power

Play back 29 Apr 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Apr29 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

141517181921222325262829

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

The weather it burned in

37°high

38km/h · peak gust

28%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 5 May.

This area had burned before

2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 79 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

TMS where it started

1,626 ha reached on 14 Apr

5.4 %
Dibia

1,515 ha reached on 14 Apr

8.1 %
Buya Romende

45 ha reached on 15 Apr

0.1 %

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)
14 Apr	34.6 °C	50 %	30 km/h	0.1 mm	High 25
15 Apr	36.7 °C	41 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
16 Apr	35.4 °C	46 %	32 km/h	0.4 mm	High 27
17 Apr	35.7 °C	37 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
18 Apr	36.8 °C	34 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
19 Apr	36.2 °C	35 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
20 Apr	36.1 °C	39 %	36 km/h	0.1 mm	High 31
21 Apr	35.9 °C	37 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
22 Apr	36.4 °C	39 %	34 km/h	0.1 mm	High 34
23 Apr	35.6 °C	31 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
24 Apr	34.9 °C	33 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
25 Apr	36.9 °C	33 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
26 Apr	34.5 °C	40 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
27 Apr	34.8 °C	42 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
28 Apr	36.4 °C	32 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
29 Apr	35.5 °C	28 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
30 Apr after	36.3 °C	37 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
1 May after	37.2 °C	34 %	37 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 39
2 May after	36.5 °C	41 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
3 May after	34.3 °C	53 %	34 km/h	0.6 mm	High 28
4 May after	36.6 °C	44 %	30 km/h	0.4 mm	High 28
5 May after	34.7 °C	47 %	35 km/h	1.5 mm	High 21

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 7 Apr 2026

After · 6 May 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 19 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 56 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 45: 3.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak56 µg/m³

Days over the guideline19 days

PM10125 µg/m³

Optical depth0.87

WHO 15

1213141516171819202122232425262728293012

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 · 86Every 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 Sierra Leone ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the TMS fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 April 2026 to 29 April 2026 (16 days). The perimeter dates it from 14 April 2026 to 22 April 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,166 hectares (31.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: TMS (1,626 ha, 5.4 %); Dibia (1,515 ha, 8.1 %); Buya Romende (45 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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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.

Where it burned