Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in KwaDukuza
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 158 fire detections seen from space; 124 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2014, 309.
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
- 158Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 124 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 2 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 5 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 1 fire detection |
| February 2026 | 5 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 0 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 6 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 26 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 28 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 29 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 32 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 17 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 7 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 9.4 ha burnt (0.011% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 115 ha burnt (0.14% 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 | 7 | 7 | 5 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 17 | 16 | 16 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 32 | 32 | 29 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 29 | 29 | 37 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 28 | 27 | 20 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 26 | 24 | 33 | 115 ha | 0.14% | 100% |
| April 2026 | 6 | 5 | 14 | 9.4 ha | 0.011% | 100% |
| March 2026 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| February 2026 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| January 2026 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| December 2025 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| November 2025 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 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
- 2014309 fire detections, most in June 2014
- 2012255 fire detections, most in August 2012
- 2024249 fire detections, most in August 2024; 2,124 ha burnt
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2024, 2,124 ha (2.5% of the place); 2020, 907 ha (1.1% of the place); 2019, 890 ha (1.0% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 151 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 105 | 451 ha | 0.53% |
| 2024 | 249 | 2,124 ha | 2.5% |
| 2023 | 137 | 327 ha | 0.39% |
| 2022 | 94 | 149 ha | 0.18% |
| 2021 | 204 | 437 ha | 0.52% |
| 2020 | 186 | 907 ha | 1.1% |
| 2019 | 210 | 890 ha | 1.0% |
| 2018 | 67 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 137 | · | · |
| 2016 | 67 | · | · |
| 2015 | 77 | · | · |
| 2014 | 309 | · | · |
| 2013 | 157 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 255 | · | · |
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 (Doringkop)
- Ward 2 (Darnall)
- Ward 3 (Zinkwazi Beach)
- Ward 4 (Shaka's Head)
- Ward 5 (Stanger Manor)
- Ward 6 (Ballito, Shaka's Rock)
- Ward 7
- Ward 8 (Chakaskraal)
- Ward 9 (Townview)
- Ward 10 (Groutville)
- Ward 11 (Blythedale Beach)
- Ward 12 (Umvoti Mouth, Tinley Manor Beach)
- Ward 13 (Townview)
- Ward 14
- Ward 15
- Ward 16 (Stanger Heights, KwaDukuza)
- Ward 17 (Stanger Heights, Stanger Manor)
- Ward 18 (Stanger Manor, Erasmus Dam)
- Ward 19 (KwaDukuza, Erasmus Dam)
- Ward 20 (Tinley Manor Beach)
- Ward 21 (Monkeyland KZN)
- Ward 22 (Salt Rock, Mount Richmore)
- Ward 23 (Chakaskraal)
- Ward 24 (Melville)
- Ward 25
- Ward 26 (Townview, KwaDukuza)
- Ward 27
- Ward 28 (Chakaskraal, Umhlali)
- Ward 29
- Ward 30 (Zimbali Estate, Compensation)
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for KwaDukuza, 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.