Wase fire, 4 January 2026 Wase, Karim Lamido
The fire started on 4 January 2026 in Wase, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,105 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 6th largest in Plateau since 2016 (of 35 with a page). Number 51 in Nigeria in 2026, of 262.
- Burnt area
- 5,105ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 4 Jan 2026 – 10 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 4 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 111
- in a single hotspot: 318 MW
- Danger at start
- 56
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.6GW
- 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.
This area had burned before
94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 30 ha in 2016, 2,694 ha in 2022, 890 ha in 2023, 28 ha in 2024, 4,753 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,791 ha that had burned before.
- 3,024 ha Wase fire, January 2025 11,611 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,644 ha Karim Lamido fire, December 2022 6,134 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 890 ha Wase fire, February 2023 3,021 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 533 ha Wase fire, December 2025 34,595 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 481 ha Karim Lamido fire, December 2025 7,466 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 30 ha Karim Lamido fire, January 2016 3,467 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 28 ha Karim Lamido fire, December 2024 3,155 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Wase where it started3,859 ha reached on 6 Jan0.8 %
-
1,278 ha reached on 6 Jan0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Jan | 39.7 °C | 10 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 5 Jan | 37.0 °C | 13 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 6 Jan | 39.0 °C | 11 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 7 Jan | 37.2 °C | 15 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 8 Jan | 37.0 °C | 18 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 9 Jan | 38.4 °C | 9 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 10 Jan | 35.9 °C | 14 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 11 Jan after | 35.7 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 12 Jan after | 36.7 °C | 15 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 13 Jan after | 37.5 °C | 13 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 14 Jan after | 35.2 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 15 Jan after | 36.6 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 16 Jan after | 38.0 °C | 15 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 17 Jan after | 37.9 °C | 15 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 18 Jan after | 37.9 °C | 15 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 19 Jan after | 38.1 °C | 29 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 20 Jan after | 38.0 °C | 28 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
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 11 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 138 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 106: 7.0 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 · 111Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,134 haKarim Lamido27 December 2022 · 8 days · 2 km away
- 11,611 haWaseJanuary 2025 · 14 days · 4 km away
- 7,466 haKarim Lamido7 December 2025 · 8 days · 7 km away
- 6,676 haKarim Lamido26 December 2025 · 16 days · 15 km away
- 34,595 haWase3 December 2025 · 19 days · 25 km away
- 31,006 haWase11 November 2025 · 18 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Wase fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 January 2026 and 10 January 2026: 7 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 5,105 hectares (51.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Wase (3,859 ha, 0.8 %); Karim Lamido (1,278 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.7 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Nigeria (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: 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 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (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.