Bona fire, February 2026 Bona, Sindian
The fire started on 8 February 2026 in Bona, Senegal, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 25,642 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the largest fire in Sédhiou since 2016 (of 86 with a page). Number 2 in Senegal in 2026, of 125.
- Burnt area
- 25,642ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 8 Feb 2026 – 22 Feb 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 8 Feb
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 547
- in a single hotspot: 94 MW
- Danger at start
- 38
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 6.4GW
- 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
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,345 ha in 2016, 2,181 ha in 2017, 6,760 ha in 2018, 893 ha in 2019, 7,279 ha in 2020, 5,153 ha in 2021, 12,534 ha in 2022, 12,886 ha in 2023, 2,912 ha in 2024, 6,447 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 22,447 ha that had burned before.
- 8,428 ha Bona fire, March 2023 12,864 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,318 ha Bona fire, February 2025 7,378 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,050 ha Bona fire, February 2021 4,139 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,042 ha Bona fire, March 2022 4,919 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,434 ha Bona fire, December 2018 2,811 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,967 ha Bona fire, February 2025 2,958 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,875 ha Bona fire, March 2022 2,991 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,419 ha Bona fire, January 2018 3,314 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bona where it started21,900 ha reached on 8 Feb27 %
-
2,216 ha reached on 8 Feb1.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Feb | 36.4 °C | 27 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 9 Feb | 38.0 °C | 21 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 10 Feb | 37.0 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 11 Feb | 37.5 °C | 20 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 12 Feb | 38.2 °C | 21 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 13 Feb | 39.7 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 14 Feb | 37.7 °C | 22 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 15 Feb | 37.7 °C | 22 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 16 Feb | 38.2 °C | 23 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 17 Feb | 37.2 °C | 16 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 18 Feb | 38.3 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 19 Feb | 39.3 °C | 17 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 20 Feb | 39.8 °C | 11 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 21 Feb | 39.6 °C | 15 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 22 Feb | 40.3 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 23 Feb after | 38.6 °C | 17 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 24 Feb after | 37.5 °C | 15 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 25 Feb after | 38.2 °C | 17 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 26 Feb after | 37.1 °C | 17 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 27 Feb after | 33.8 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 28 Feb after | 30.7 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 1 Mar after | 32.3 °C | 23 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 2 Mar after | 32.1 °C | 26 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 3 Mar after | 34.8 °C | 20 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 4 Mar after | 34.2 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
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 17 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 140 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 109: 7.3 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 · 547Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 12,864 haBonaMarch 2023 · 12 days · 3 km away
- 7,769 haBonaJanuary 2026 · 7 days · 15 km away
- 12,988 haSindian12 February 2026 · 10 days · 27 km away
- 7,630 haKiang West16 January 2026 · 7 days · 32 km away
- 10,788 haKiang West10 February 2022 · 5 days · 34 km away
- 8,848 haDiaroumé25 February 2021 · 8 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bona fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 February 2026 and 22 February 2026: 15 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 25,642 hectares (256.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bona (21,900 ha, 27 %); Sindian (2,216 ha, 1.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.3 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.