Bilimono fire, 1 December 2024 Bilimono
The fire started on 1 December 2024 in Bilimono, Côte d’Ivoire, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,301 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 21th largest in Savanes since 2016 (of 276 with a page). Number 16 in Côte d’Ivoire in 2024, of 165.
The power measured by the satellite is low (12.6 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
- 4,301ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 1 Dec 2024 – 9 Dec 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 1 Dec
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 115
- in a single hotspot: 13 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 366MW
- 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 36 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
73% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,150 ha in 2016, 229 ha in 2017, 1,061 ha in 2018, 1,109 ha in 2019, 31 ha in 2021, 1,017 ha in 2022, 850 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,138 ha that had burned before.
- 2,150 ha Bilimono fire, December 2016 8,520 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,109 ha Bilimono fire, December 2019 2,380 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,061 ha Parc national de la Comoé fire, December 2018 90,945 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 850 ha Bilimono fire, December 2023 1,615 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 753 ha Bilimono fire, December 2022 1,358 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 264 ha Bilimono fire, January 2022 14,894 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 229 ha Bilimono fire, December 2017 3,029 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 31 ha Bilimono fire, December 2021 1,082 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bilimono where it started4,329 ha reached on 1 Dec1.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Dec | 31.3 °C | 24 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 2 Dec | 31.9 °C | 23 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 3 Dec | 32.5 °C | 24 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 4 Dec | 32.7 °C | 24 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 5 Dec | 30.7 °C | 18 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 6 Dec | 32.0 °C | 19 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 7 Dec | 30.8 °C | 24 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 8 Dec | 31.6 °C | 20 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 9 Dec | 31.8 °C | 22 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 10 Dec after | 31.8 °C | 26 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 11 Dec after | 32.8 °C | 25 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 12 Dec after | 32.7 °C | 30 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 13 Dec after | 32.3 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 14 Dec after | 34.1 °C | 15 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 15 Dec after | 33.8 °C | 15 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 16 Dec after | 32.2 °C | 18 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 17 Dec after | 32.5 °C | 17 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 18 Dec after | 32.2 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 19 Dec after | 30.3 °C | 19 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
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 9 December 2024 the air beside the fire reached 106 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 87: 5.8 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 · 115Every 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 Bilimono fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 December 2024 and 9 December 2024: 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 4,301 hectares (43.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Bilimono (4,329 ha, 1.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Côte d’Ivoire (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: 180
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.