Bandafassi fire, 20 January 2025 Bandafassi
The fire started on 20 January 2025 in Bandafassi, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,543 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 49th largest in Kédougou since 2016 (of 116 with a page). Number 26 in Senegal in 2025, of 112.
- Burnt area
- 3,543ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 20 Jan 2025 – 25 Jan 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 20 Jan
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 116
- in a single hotspot: 33 MW
- Danger at start
- 55
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 641MW
- 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.
This area had burned before
71% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 366 ha in 2016, 1,070 ha in 2017, 255 ha in 2018, 108 ha in 2019, 644 ha in 2020, 1,328 ha in 2021, 1,441 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,498 ha that had burned before.
- 1,161 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2021 9,627 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 783 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2017 2,788 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 453 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2020 13,117 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 338 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2016 30,325 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 287 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2017 2,694 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 190 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2020 31,411 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 37 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2023 9,261 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2023 34,293 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bandafassi where it started3,566 ha reached on 20 Jan0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Jan | 35.6 °C | 12 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 21 Jan | 36.6 °C | 14 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 22 Jan | 37.0 °C | 15 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 23 Jan | 37.1 °C | 17 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 24 Jan | 38.6 °C | 12 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 25 Jan | 38.4 °C | 16 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 26 Jan after | 39.7 °C | 17 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 27 Jan after | 39.4 °C | 14 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 28 Jan after | 38.8 °C | 12 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 29 Jan after | 37.7 °C | 10 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 30 Jan after | 38.4 °C | 9 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 31 Jan after | 37.0 °C | 12 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 1 Feb after | 35.2 °C | 15 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 2 Feb after | 32.0 °C | 15 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 3 Feb after | 33.2 °C | 14 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 4 Feb after | 34.9 °C | 14 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
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 22 January 2025 the air beside the fire reached 155 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 98: 6.5 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 · 116Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 30,325 haBandafassi23 January 2016 · 19 days · 8 km away
- 32,881 haBandafassi18 January 2025 · 16 days · 12 km away
- 31,411 haBandafassi2 January 2020 · 19 days · 14 km away
- 34,293 haBandafassi12 January 2023 · 7 days · 15 km away
- 131,818 haMissira10 January 2026 · 50 days · 26 km away
- 24,965 haMissira28 December 2024 · 7 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bandafassi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 January 2025 and 25 January 2025: 6 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 3,543 hectares (35.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Bandafassi (3,566 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Senegal (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.
Emergency number: 18
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.