How long did the Bocanda fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 January 2026 to 27 January 2026 (8 days). The perimeter dates it from 23 January 2026 to 27 January 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,537 hectares (35.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Didiévi (2,393 ha, 5.4 %); Bocanda (1,167 ha, 0.9 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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.

CI · Côte d’Ivoire · 2026-01-20 → 2026-01-27

Bocanda fire, January 2026 Didiévi, Bocanda

Out · last detection 27 Jan 2026, 13:56 UTC

The fire started on 20 January 2026 in Bocanda, Côte d’Ivoire, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,537 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 14th largest in Lacs since 2016 (of 139 with a page). Number 13 in Côte d’Ivoire in 2026, of 136.

Burnt area: 3,537ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 8days; 20 Jan 2026 – 27 Jan 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; sub-prefectures
Started on: 20 Jan; 2026
Heat detections: 44; in a single hotspot: 49 MW
Danger at start: 12; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 358MW; sum of detected power

Play back 27 Jan 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Jan27 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

2021222324252627

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

28km/h · peak gust

16%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.3 mm on 3 Feb.

This area had burned before

34% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 97 ha in 2020, 199 ha in 2023, 986 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,186 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Didiévi

2,393 ha reached on 23 Jan

5.4 %
Bocanda where it started

1,167 ha reached on 20 Jan

0.9 %

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)
20 Jan	34.8 °C	42 %	28 km/h	2.0 mm	Moderate 12
21 Jan	36.0 °C	31 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
22 Jan	34.7 °C	32 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
23 Jan	35.1 °C	23 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
24 Jan	35.7 °C	28 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
25 Jan	36.4 °C	16 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
26 Jan	35.9 °C	17 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
27 Jan	35.5 °C	27 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
28 Jan after	35.6 °C	33 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
29 Jan after	36.7 °C	30 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
30 Jan after	36.5 °C	33 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
31 Jan after	36.3 °C	34 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
1 Feb after	36.1 °C	38 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
2 Feb after	36.7 °C	42 %	26 km/h	0.5 mm	High 30
3 Feb after	32.3 °C	54 %	29 km/h	7.3 mm	Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 13 Jan 2026

After · 3 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 28 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 100 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 68: 4.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak100 µg/m³

Days over the guideline13 days

PM10224 µg/m³

Optical depth1.19

WHO 15

18192021222324252627282930

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 · 44Every 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 Côte d’Ivoire ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bocanda fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 January 2026 to 27 January 2026 (8 days). The perimeter dates it from 23 January 2026 to 27 January 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,537 hectares (35.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Didiévi (2,393 ha, 5.4 %); Bocanda (1,167 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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

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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What really happened?

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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 180.

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