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Baguinet fire, April 2018 Sogolon, Baguinet

Out · last detection 27 Apr 2018, 13:51 UTC

The fire started on 17 April 2018 in Baguinet, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,793 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 95th largest in Boké since 2016 (of 237 with a page). Number 48 in Guinea in 2018, of 107.

Burnt area
2,793ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
17 Apr 2018 – 26 Apr 2018
Municipalities hit
2
sub-prefectures
Started on
17 Apr
2018
Heat detections
134
in a single hotspot: 98 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Apr 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Apr26 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

17181920222324252627

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

38°high
46km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

58% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,329 ha in 2016, 979 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,624 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Sogolon
    1,699 ha reached on 16 Apr
    2.9 %
  2. Baguinet where it started
    1,112 ha reached on 15 Apr
    2.4 %

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)
17 Apr 37.8 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 Apr 35.6 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Apr 34.2 °C 41 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Apr 35.5 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Apr 36.6 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Apr 36.5 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Apr 37.5 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Apr 36.5 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Apr 36.2 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Apr 33.8 °C 34 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Apr after 34.4 °C 46 % 35 km/h 0.4 mm High 32
28 Apr after 38.0 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Apr after 36.2 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Apr after 35.4 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 May after 34.7 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 May after 35.9 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 May after 34.6 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 May after 34.4 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
5 May after 34.1 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 May after 35.7 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 10 Apr 2018
After · 3 May 2018

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 · 134Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Guinea ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Baguinet fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 April 2018 and 26 April 2018: 10 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 2,793 hectares (27.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sogolon (1,699 ha, 2.9 %); Baguinet (1,112 ha, 2.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Guinea (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.

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.

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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 ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.