Bandafassi fire, 22 January 2026 Bandafassi
The fire started on 22 January 2026 in Bandafassi, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,105 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 9th largest in Kédougou since 2016 (of 116 with a page). Number 7 in Senegal in 2026, of 126.
- Burnt area
- 13,105ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 22 Jan 2026 – 1 Feb 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 22 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 376
- in a single hotspot: 212 MW
- Danger at start
- 42
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.1GW
- 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
76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,909 ha in 2016, 1,577 ha in 2017, 453 ha in 2018, 2,856 ha in 2019, 5,441 ha in 2020, 2,922 ha in 2021, 2,205 ha in 2022, 1,798 ha in 2023, 4,461 ha in 2024, 4,101 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,995 ha that had burned before.
- 3,423 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2019 5,792 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,905 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2024 4,420 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,308 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2021 3,713 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,072 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2020 4,972 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,585 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2016 4,618 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,519 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2017 3,004 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 904 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2025 2,452 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 65 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2025 2,663 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bandafassi where it started13,187 ha reached on 23 Jan2.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Jan | 30.9 °C | 28 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 23 Jan | 33.3 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 24 Jan | 34.2 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 25 Jan | 30.7 °C | 21 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 26 Jan | 33.1 °C | 22 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 27 Jan | 34.4 °C | 20 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 28 Jan | 35.2 °C | 19 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 29 Jan | 36.0 °C | 18 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 30 Jan | 36.8 °C | 18 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 31 Jan | 37.1 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 1 Feb | 35.6 °C | 26 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 2 Feb after | 36.4 °C | 24 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 3 Feb after | 37.4 °C | 18 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 4 Feb after | 29.9 °C | 34 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 5 Feb after | 33.9 °C | 32 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 6 Feb after | 36.2 °C | 19 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 7 Feb after | 38.2 °C | 19 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 8 Feb after | 36.6 °C | 21 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 9 Feb after | 36.9 °C | 18 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 10 Feb after | 37.0 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 11 Feb after | 38.3 °C | 17 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
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 2 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 130 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 89: 5.9 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 · 376Every 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 22 January 2026 and 1 February 2026: 11 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 13,105 hectares (131.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Bandafassi (13,187 ha, 2.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, class Very high.
- 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.