Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Hessequa
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 711 fire detections seen from space; 5,153 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2018, 2,311.
Two readings from space. Fire detections are hot spots a VIIRS satellite saw as it passed, each about 375 m across, counted where they fall in the place: a big fire gives many, a short one between passes none. Burnt area is the ground that looks burnt afterwards, from Sentinel-3 at 300 m, in hectares. Neither is a fire report from the ground.
The last twelve months
- 711Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 5,153 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 64 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 37 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 320 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 131 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 54 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 66 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 2 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 6 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 8 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 7 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 12 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 4 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 367 ha burnt (0.064% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 69 ha burnt (0.012% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 3,938 ha burnt (0.69% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 521 ha burnt (0.091% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 153 ha burnt (0.027% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 105 ha burnt (0.018% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| June 2026 | not out yet |
| July 2026 | not out yet |
| August 2026 | not out yet |
| September 2026 | not out yet |
| October 2026 | not out yet |
| Month | Detections | Nominal or high confidence | NOAA-20 (second reading) | Burnt | Share of the place | Land seen |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2026 | 4 | 4 | 21 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 12 | 12 | 9 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 7 | 7 | 13 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 8 | 8 | 9 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 6 | 6 | 1 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| April 2026 | 66 | 64 | 45 | 105 ha | 0.018% | 100% |
| March 2026 | 54 | 45 | 65 | 153 ha | 0.027% | 100% |
| February 2026 | 131 | 119 | 68 | 521 ha | 0.091% | 100% |
| January 2026 | 320 | 301 | 324 | 3,938 ha | 0.69% | 100% |
| December 2025 | 37 | 31 | 46 | 69 ha | 0.012% | 100% |
| November 2025 | 64 | 59 | 92 | 367 ha | 0.064% | 100% |
NOAA-20 carries the same instrument as S-NPP and passes about 50 minutes apart, so its count is a second reading of the same fires, not extra fires. “Land seen” is the share of the place’s land the burnt-area product saw often enough that month to tell.
The worst years
- 20182,311 fire detections, most in January 2018
- 20171,167 fire detections, most in January 2017
- 2014704 fire detections, most in August 2014
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2022, 4,826 ha (0.84% of the place); 2025, 4,649 ha (0.81% of the place); 2024, 1,649 ha (0.29% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 610 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 649 | 4,649 ha | 0.81% |
| 2024 | 389 | 1,649 ha | 0.29% |
| 2023 | 266 | 1,017 ha | 0.18% |
| 2022 | 619 | 4,826 ha | 0.84% |
| 2021 | 374 | 1,611 ha | 0.28% |
| 2020 | 246 | 750 ha | 0.13% |
| 2019 | 549 | 1,637 ha | 0.28% |
| 2018 | 2,311 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 1,167 | · | · |
| 2016 | 271 | · | · |
| 2015 | 609 | · | · |
| 2014 | 704 | · | · |
| 2013 | 600 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 457 | · | · |
Detections from February 2012 (S-NPP); burnt area from July 2018, so whole years of it from 2019. A larger place’s figures are the sums of its 2026 wards.
Each ward
- Ward 1 (Melkhoutfontein, Lappiesbaai)
- Ward 2 (Albertinia)
- Ward 3 (Jongensfontein, Stilbaai)
- Ward 4 (Witsand, Breedezicht Estate)
- Ward 5 (Heidelberg)
- Ward 6 (Riversdale)
- Ward 7 (Riversdale)
- Ward 8 (Riversdale)
- Ward 9 (Heidelberg, Van Wyk)
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Hessequa, on one page
Source
Seen from space by American and European satellites: not fires reported on the ground.
How we worked this out
What we changed: we counted FIRMS’s detections (presumed vegetation fires only) by the 2026 ward their position falls in, and summed CLMS’s burned fraction times each pixel’s area over each ward; municipalities, districts and provinces are the sums of their wards.
Fire detections: we acknowledge the use of data and/or imagery from NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), part of NASA’s LANCE (VIIRS 375 m, S-NPP and NOAA-20). Burnt area: generated using European Union’s Copernicus Land Monitoring Service information (Burnt Area 300 m version 4, DOI 10.2909/8fa58061-28ab-49bb-9b77-c26b50733e34), modified; this does not mean the European Union endorses us.
Dataset: burnt area and fire, release of 12 November 2026.