Benakuma fire, March 2021 Benakuma, Akwaya
The fire started on 1 March 2021 in Benakuma, Cameroon, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,170 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 9th largest in North-West since 2016 (of 122 with a page). Number 15 in Cameroon in 2021, of 293.
- Burnt area
- 4,170ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 1 Mar 2021 – 9 Mar 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- communes
- Started on
- 1 Mar
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 144
- in a single hotspot: 260 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.9GW
- 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. Rain came after the fire: 13.6 mm on 10 Mar.
This area had burned before
12% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 321 ha in 2017, 41 ha in 2019, 254 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 488 ha that had burned before.
- 321 ha Benakuma fire, February 2017 3,878 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 254 ha Benakuma fire, February 2020 1,486 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 41 ha Benakuma fire, February 2019 2,310 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Benakuma where it started4,099 ha reached on 24 Feb4.3 %
-
98 ha reached on 3 Mar0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Mar | 36.0 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 2 Mar | 36.4 °C | 17 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 3 Mar | 36.7 °C | 13 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 4 Mar | 35.4 °C | 22 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 5 Mar | 37.0 °C | 21 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 6 Mar | 36.9 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 7 Mar | 37.0 °C | 27 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 8 Mar | 37.5 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 9 Mar | 36.6 °C | 28 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 10 Mar after | 34.2 °C | 48 % | 28 km/h | 13.6 mm | Very low 4 |
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.
Detections table · 144Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,598 haBenakuma24 February 2026 · 15 days · 7 km away
- 3,878 haBenakuma26 February 2017 · 8 days · 7 km away
- 2,310 haBenakuma19 February 2019 · 5 days · 7 km away
- 2,646 haAkwaya18 February 2020 · 8 days · 13 km away
- 2,323 haBenakuma26 February 2017 · 7 days · 17 km away
- 4,491 haAkwaya28 February 2017 · 7 days · 25 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Benakuma fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 March 2021 and 9 March 2021: 9 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 4,170 hectares (41.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Benakuma (4,099 ha, 4.3 %); Akwaya (98 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 36 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 Cameroon (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
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 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.