Baguinet fire, May 2026 Baguinet, Sogolon, Tondon
The fire started on 1 May 2026 in Baguinet, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,408 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the 11th largest in Boké since 2016 (of 237 with a page). Number 22 in Guinea in 2026, of 269.
- Burnt area
- 6,408ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 20days
- 1 May 2026 – 20 May 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 1 May
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 200
- in a single hotspot: 143 MW
- Danger at start
- 42
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.0GW
- 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. Rain came after the fire: 4.5 mm on 22 May.
This area had burned before
69% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,639 ha in 2016, 2,955 ha in 2017, 1,003 ha in 2018, 19 ha in 2019, 890 ha in 2021, 426 ha in 2022, 220 ha in 2023, 657 ha in 2024, 426 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,431 ha that had burned before.
- 1,996 ha Baguinet fire, April 2017 3,952 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 657 ha Tondon fire, April 2024 2,765 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 593 ha Tondon fire, April 2018 3,951 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 426 ha Baguinet fire, April 2025 2,135 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 410 ha Baguinet fire, April 2018 2,793 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 375 ha Sogolon fire, April 2021 2,618 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 250 ha Banguigny fire, April 2017 3,204 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 68 ha Tondon fire, April 2017 4,408 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Baguinet where it started4,975 ha reached on 1 May11 %
-
851 ha reached on 3 May1.4 %
-
556 ha reached on 3 May0.6 %
-
66 ha reached on 2 May0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 May | 37.6 °C | 25 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 2 May | 34.9 °C | 36 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 3 May | 34.1 °C | 46 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 4 May | 36.6 °C | 39 % | 30 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 31 |
| 5 May | 34.2 °C | 45 % | 34 km/h | 2.1 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 6 May | 34.9 °C | 41 % | 29 km/h | 2.6 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 7 May | 36.6 °C | 36 % | 42 km/h | 1.0 mm | High 28 |
| 8 May | 33.3 °C | 34 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 9 May | 32.6 °C | 36 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 10 May | 34.3 °C | 40 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 11 May | 36.5 °C | 42 % | 33 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 31 |
| 12 May | 33.2 °C | 48 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 13 May | 34.3 °C | 49 % | 36 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 31 |
| 14 May | 35.0 °C | 46 % | 36 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 28 |
| 15 May | 35.8 °C | 40 % | 34 km/h | 1.4 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 16 May | 34.2 °C | 38 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 17 May | 34.7 °C | 45 % | 30 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 26 |
| 18 May | 36.4 °C | 28 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 19 May | 35.8 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 20 May | 35.9 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 21 May after | 34.6 °C | 33 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 22 May after | 34.8 °C | 54 % | 29 km/h | 4.5 mm | Low 7 |
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 17 May 2026 the air beside the fire reached 117 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 91: 6.1 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 · 200Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 9,116 haThionthian9 April 2016 · 11 days · 18 km away
- 11,473 haTondon14 April 2016 · 17 days · 19 km away
- 7,334 haSogolon11 April 2017 · 10 days · 20 km away
- 14,183 haKonsotami19 April 2018 · 14 days · 26 km away
- 9,219 haSogolon11 April 2017 · 10 days · 29 km away
- 9,669 haSogolonApril 2026 · 21 days · 31 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Baguinet fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 1 May 2026 to 20 May 2026 (20 days). The perimeter dates it from 8 May 2026 to 15 May 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,408 hectares (64.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Baguinet (4,975 ha, 11 %); Sogolon (851 ha, 1.4 %); Tondon (556 ha, 0.6 %); Banguigny (66 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.
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 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.