Usuk fire, January 2020 Usuk, Bokora
The fire started on 18 January 2020 in Usuk, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,145 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 18th largest in Eastern Region since 2016 (of 27 with a page). Number 125 in Uganda in 2020, of 170.
- Burnt area
- 1,145ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 1day
- 18 Jan 2020 – 18 Jan 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- counties
- Started on
- 18 Jan
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 36
- in a single hotspot: 160 MW
- Energy released
- 1.2GW
- 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.
This area had burned before
55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 627 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
Usuk where it started831 ha reached on 13 Jan0.3 %
-
321 ha reached on 18 Jan0.1 %
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.
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.
Detections table · 36Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 9,281 haUsuk9 November 2025 · 16 days · 11 km away
- 3,436 haPian7 November 2025 · 8 days · 21 km away
- 3,845 haPian11 November 2025 · 8 days · 29 km away
- 3,946 haPian18 August 2026 · 25 days · 32 km away
- 6,871 haChekwiiJanuary 2026 · 9 days · 33 km away
- 5,089 haBokora18 November 2025 · 13 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Usuk fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 January 2020 and 18 January 2020: 1 day 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 1,145 hectares (11.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Usuk (831 ha, 0.3 %); Bokora (321 ha, 0.1 %).
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Uganda (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.
Emergency number: 999 · 112
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.