Bandafassi fire, 16 February 2025 Bandafassi
The fire started on 16 February 2025 in Bandafassi, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,857 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 66th largest in Kédougou since 2016 (of 116 with a page). Number 55 in Senegal in 2025, of 112.
- Burnt area
- 2,857ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 16 Feb 2025 – 21 Feb 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 16 Feb
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 95
- in a single hotspot: 38 MW
- Danger at start
- 50
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 815MW
- 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
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2 ha in 2016, 644 ha in 2017, 259 ha in 2019, 1,118 ha in 2020, 902 ha in 2021, 711 ha in 2022, 1,247 ha in 2023, 2,431 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,843 ha that had burned before.
- 2,194 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2024 5,289 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 739 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2023 4,213 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 711 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2022 5,284 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 460 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2023 9,887 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 440 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2021 2,025 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 235 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2020 10,079 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 217 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2024 2,831 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 122 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2017 2,359 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bandafassi where it started2,878 ha reached on 16 Feb0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Feb | 40.7 °C | 18 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 17 Feb | 40.6 °C | 17 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 18 Feb | 41.4 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 19 Feb | 41.4 °C | 10 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 20 Feb | 39.8 °C | 9 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 21 Feb | 40.3 °C | 10 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 22 Feb after | 38.1 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 23 Feb after | 37.3 °C | 16 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 24 Feb after | 37.2 °C | 13 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 25 Feb after | 36.3 °C | 13 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 26 Feb after | 36.0 °C | 12 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 27 Feb after | 38.0 °C | 9 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 28 Feb after | 39.7 °C | 10 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 1 Mar after | 40.1 °C | 12 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 2 Mar after | 40.4 °C | 12 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 3 Mar after | 36.3 °C | 19 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
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 24 February 2025 the air beside the fire reached 92 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 77: 5.1 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 · 95Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bandafassi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 February 2025 and 21 February 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 2,857 hectares (28.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Bandafassi (2,878 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 41.4 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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.