Bona fire, 17 February 2025 Bona
The fire started on 17 February 2025 in Bona, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,378 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 7th largest in Sédhiou since 2016 (of 86 with a page). Number 4 in Senegal in 2025, of 112.
- Burnt area
- 7,378ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 17 Feb 2025 – 27 Feb 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 17 Feb
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 223
- in a single hotspot: 63 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.5GW
- 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.
This area had burned before
90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,088 ha in 2018, 111 ha in 2019, 1,696 ha in 2020, 1,040 ha in 2021, 3,883 ha in 2022, 4,287 ha in 2023, 2,196 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,657 ha that had burned before.
- 3,659 ha Bona fire, March 2023 12,864 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,790 ha Bona fire, March 2022 4,919 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,246 ha Bona fire, December 2018 2,811 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 295 ha Bona fire, February 2021 2,232 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 178 ha Bona fire, January 2018 3,314 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 178 ha Bona fire, February 2021 4,139 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bona where it started7,423 ha reached on 17 Feb9.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Feb | 36.6 °C | 21 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 18 Feb | 35.7 °C | 22 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 19 Feb | 37.5 °C | 19 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 20 Feb | 37.8 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 21 Feb | 37.6 °C | 19 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 22 Feb | 37.9 °C | 20 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 23 Feb | 37.6 °C | 15 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 24 Feb | 36.9 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 25 Feb | 36.4 °C | 17 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 26 Feb | 36.2 °C | 14 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 27 Feb | 37.6 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 28 Feb after | 38.0 °C | 20 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 1 Mar after | 37.4 °C | 18 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 2 Mar after | 34.0 °C | 22 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 3 Mar after | 31.4 °C | 36 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 4 Mar after | 33.8 °C | 30 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 5 Mar after | 34.6 °C | 30 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 6 Mar after | 34.0 °C | 29 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 7 Mar after | 36.1 °C | 29 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 8 Mar after | 36.9 °C | 23 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 9 Mar after | 37.4 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
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 27 February 2025 the air beside the fire reached 111 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 · 223Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 7,769 haBonaJanuary 2026 · 7 days · 8 km away
- 25,642 haBonaFebruary 2026 · 15 days · 9 km away
- 12,864 haBonaMarch 2023 · 12 days · 11 km away
- 8,848 haDiaroumé25 February 2021 · 8 days · 29 km away
- 12,988 haSindian12 February 2026 · 10 days · 32 km away
- 11,398 haBogal15 February 2026 · 6 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bona fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 February 2025 and 27 February 2025: 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 7,378 hectares (73.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Bona (7,423 ha, 9.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.9 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, class Extreme.
- 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
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.