How long did the Banfélé fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 January 2026 and 1 February 2026: 10 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 3,180 hectares (31.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 4 municipalities: Banfélé (1,305 ha, 0.6 %); Moribayah (1,213 ha, 0.7 %); Koumban (670 ha, 0.8 %); Douako (12 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.

GN · Guinea · 2026-01-23 → 2026-02-01

Banfélé fire, 23 January 2026 Banfélé, Moribayah, Koumban

Out · last detection 1 Feb 2026, 14:04 UTC

The fire started on 23 January 2026 in Banfélé, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,180 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 127th largest in Kankan since 2016 (of 388 with a page). Number 95 in Guinea in 2026, of 269.

The power measured by the satellite is low (28.7 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: 3,180ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 10days; 23 Jan 2026 – 1 Feb 2026
Municipalities hit: 4; sub-prefectures
Started on: 23 Jan; 2026
Heat detections: 60; in a single hotspot: 29 MW
Danger at start: 31; High · FWI index
Energy released: 432MW; sum of detected power

Play back 1 Feb 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Jan1 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

252627282930311

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

36°high

35km/h · peak gust

13%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

54% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 364 ha in 2016, 337 ha in 2017, 153 ha in 2020, 861 ha in 2021, 657 ha in 2022, 1,031 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,706 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Banfélé where it started

1,305 ha reached on 25 Jan

0.6 %
Moribayah

1,213 ha reached on 25 Jan

0.7 %
Koumban

670 ha reached on 26 Jan

0.8 %
Douako

12 ha

0.0 %

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)
23 Jan	32.8 °C	20 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
24 Jan	33.6 °C	19 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
25 Jan	32.7 °C	16 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
26 Jan	33.6 °C	19 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
27 Jan	34.6 °C	15 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
28 Jan	34.9 °C	13 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
29 Jan	34.9 °C	14 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
30 Jan	35.6 °C	14 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
31 Jan	36.5 °C	13 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
1 Feb	36.1 °C	24 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
2 Feb after	37.0 °C	20 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
3 Feb after	34.6 °C	28 %	26 km/h	0.2 mm	High 36
4 Feb after	32.1 °C	38 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
5 Feb after	35.5 °C	19 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
6 Feb after	36.1 °C	15 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
7 Feb after	37.0 °C	11 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
8 Feb after	36.9 °C	12 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
9 Feb after	36.4 °C	9 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
10 Feb after	36.9 °C	11 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
11 Feb after	37.2 °C	14 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

↔

Before · 16 Jan 2026

After · 8 Feb 2026

Before After

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 · Copernicus

On 2 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 96 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 53: 3.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak96 µg/m³

Days over the guideline15 days

PM10162 µg/m³

Optical depth0.50

WHO 15

21222324252627282930311234

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 60Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.

⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.

Date and time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Guinea ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Banfélé fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 January 2026 and 1 February 2026: 10 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 3,180 hectares (31.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 4 municipalities: Banfélé (1,305 ha, 0.6 %); Moribayah (1,213 ha, 0.7 %); Koumban (670 ha, 0.8 %); Douako (12 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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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.

Where it burned