Bandafassi fire, 28 January 2026 Bandafassi
The fire started on 28 January 2026 in Bandafassi, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,701 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 46th largest in Kédougou since 2016 (of 116 with a page). Number 45 in Senegal in 2026, of 125.
The power measured by the satellite is low (25.1 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 3,701ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 28 Jan 2026 – 2 Feb 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 28 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 74
- in a single hotspot: 25 MW
- Danger at start
- 57
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 477MW
- 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
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 514 ha in 2016, 926 ha in 2017, 1,407 ha in 2019, 1,795 ha in 2021, 514 ha in 2022, 35 ha in 2023, 2,721 ha in 2024, 1,682 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,644 ha that had burned before.
- 2,029 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2024 2,353 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,517 ha Bandafassi fire, January 2021 2,145 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,197 ha Bandafassi fire, March 2025 2,633 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 514 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2022 5,284 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 416 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2024 2,831 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 141 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2016 4,130 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 35 ha Bandafassi fire, December 2023 4,213 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bandafassi where it started3,729 ha reached on 28 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Jan | 37.6 °C | 7 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 29 Jan | 38.4 °C | 6 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 30 Jan | 39.2 °C | 7 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 31 Jan | 39.8 °C | 4 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 1 Feb | 38.8 °C | 9 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 2 Feb | 39.1 °C | 14 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 3 Feb after | 39.8 °C | 13 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 4 Feb after | 32.0 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 5 Feb after | 36.3 °C | 23 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 6 Feb after | 37.6 °C | 16 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 7 Feb after | 39.9 °C | 14 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 8 Feb after | 38.9 °C | 12 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 9 Feb after | 38.5 °C | 11 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 10 Feb after | 39.0 °C | 7 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 11 Feb after | 40.1 °C | 10 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 12 Feb after | 40.5 °C | 8 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
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 5 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 99 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 62: 4.1 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 · 74Every 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 28 January 2026 and 2 February 2026: 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 3,701 hectares (37.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Bandafassi (3,729 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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.