Fire season peaks in the weeks just before the rains, when pastoralists burn in the expectation of being rewarded with fresh green shoots for their livestock, as well as local beliefs that fire itself will help call the rains on. It is also the windiest time of year, and those strong winds make any fire that takes hold burn faster and more fiercely. This year, true to form, fire featured heavily until in the second half of September, the rains finally arrived, breaking the drought across the northern areas and Galana, turning the first patches of country green, and drawing both wildlife and livestock out and away from the rivers they had been tied to for months — an earlier preview of what will hopefully be a meaninful rainy season.

The defining event of the month was a major bushfire in the Maktau area, which broke out on 13 September and burned, on and off, for several days. Fanned by strong winds, it could not be contained while still small, and by the following morning it had consumed roughly 15,700 acres. The fixed-wing provided repeated aerial support over the days that followed — mapping the fire's extent, directing ground teams, and dropping a company commander at Maktau to coordinate the effort on the ground. The fire reignited on two separate fronts, east and west, and at its greatest extent had burned approximately 22,200 acres before light drizzle finally helped bring it under control and extinguish it. A smaller fire earlier in the month at KARI, which burned 516 acres, was successfully extinguished by SWT and KWS rangers with the aid of skilful back-burning from a road, and the aerial unit identified three potential re-ignition points for the teams to attend to.

Early in the month, on 6 September, the helicopter and veterinary team were deployed well beyond Tsavo in support of two significant rhino operations. At Meru National Park, the team assisted in the darting and capture of two white rhino cows, which were translocated to El Karama in Laikipia. From there they continued to Nairobi National Park to treat an injured white rhino cow that had been hurt in a confrontation with a bull — the second such injury she had sustained from the same animal. Both interventions reflect the specialised role the Aerial Unit plays in supporting Kenya's rhino conservation programme across the country.

Veterinary work across Tsavo continued throughout the month. A snared giraffe on Kari Ranch was located and treated, though sadly the snare wound was severe and the animal's body condition so poor that it could not stand after treatment. A fence-breaking bull elephant was translocated from Kamboyo to Tsavo East, and a problem bull at Komboyo/Mangalete was also moved. Snared zebra were treated at Kipini, and a snared wildebeest with a cable around its neck was successfully treated in the Nasaru area of the northern Chyulu, with a very good prognosis.

The month brought several wildlife rescues. On 22 September, an orphaned zebra was rescued in the Shumbaland area. In one of the more unusual callouts of the month, on 25 September a baby elephant was rescued and safely recovered at Kilaguni after falling into a sewage tank.

Human–elephant conflict continued to require regular helicopter responses, with problem elephants reported around Gazi, Kanziku, Kamunyu, and Kilalinda, among others. As is so often the case, some of the most persistent animals proved the hardest to move — a family herd of eight elephants outside the park at Kilalinda resisted repeated attempts by two helicopters and ground vehicles to drive them back through the community fence, the matriarch charging the aircraft and vehicles rather than retreating. Cases like these are increasingly pointing towards mass capture or translocation as the only workable solution.

On the law enforcement front, sustained anti-poaching operations on Kulalu Ranch produced strong results during the middle of the month. On 15 September, a coordinated night operation by the bushmeat teams and drone unit detained sixteen individuals who were trespassing in a protected area. The following morning, all sixteen were searched. Eight were found to be poaching, various items of hunting paraphernalia having been discovered on them; the remaining eight were released. The arrests were made on the cutlines leading toward Tsavo East, and two charcoal camps were destroyed in the course of the operation, which continued the following day with further charcoal camps raided and additional recoveries handed to ADC and GSU. The Kulalu–Galana landscape remains saturated with charcoal and bushmeat activity, and these operations represent an important and ongoing effort to disrupt it.

By the final week of the month, the character of the landscape had begun to change. Rain fell widely across the northern area — around 50mm in places — and the first flush of green began to draw wildlife and livestock away from the rivers and back out across the plains. Dams that had stood dry for months began to hold water again, and the long, hard dry season at last showed signs of releasing its grip. The first of the rains came late in September, as they always eventually do — and with them, the first promise of green across a landscape that had earned it.