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Bembou fire, January 2026 Bembou, Bandafassi

Out · last detection 3 Feb 2026, 13:27 UTC

The fire started on 24 January 2026 in Bembou, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,063 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 58th largest in Kédougou since 2016 (of 116 with a page). Number 62 in Senegal in 2026, of 126.

Burnt area
3,063ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
24 Jan 2026 – 3 Feb 2026
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
24 Jan
2026
Heat detections
53
in a single hotspot: 90 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
489MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Feb 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Jan3 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

242526272829313

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
38km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Bembou where it started
    2,695 ha reached on 24 Jan
    0.8 %
  2. Bandafassi
    387 ha reached on 26 Jan
    0.1 %

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)
24 Jan 34.2 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Jan 31.0 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Jan 33.1 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Jan 34.5 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Jan 35.3 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Jan 36.2 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Jan 37.1 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Jan 37.4 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Feb 36.1 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Feb 36.8 °C 21 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Feb 37.7 °C 17 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
4 Feb after 29.7 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Feb after 34.2 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Feb after 36.4 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Feb after 38.4 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Feb after 37.0 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Feb after 36.8 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Feb after 37.4 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Feb after 38.5 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
12 Feb after 38.6 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Feb after 39.7 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Jan 2026
After · 10 Feb 2026

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 5 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 81 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 58: 3.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak81 µg/m³
Days over the guideline16 days
PM10266 µg/m³
Optical depth0.51
22232425262728293031123456
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 · 53Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Senegal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bembou fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 January 2026 and 3 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 3,063 hectares (30.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bembou (2,695 ha, 0.8 %); Bandafassi (387 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 38 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 18.

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.