Boola fire, 21 January 2026 Boola
The fire started on 21 January 2026 in Boola, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,150 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 18th largest in Nzérékoré since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 38 in Guinea in 2026, of 269.
- Burnt area
- 5,150ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 21 Jan 2026 – 30 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 21 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 128
- in a single hotspot: 47 MW
- Danger at start
- 19
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 901MW
- 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 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.0 mm on 3 Feb.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,604 ha in 2016, 1,851 ha in 2017, 3,852 ha in 2018, 2,715 ha in 2019, 847 ha in 2020, 2,650 ha in 2021, 1,471 ha in 2022, 2,295 ha in 2023, 2,512 ha in 2024, 846 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,063 ha that had burned before.
- 2,628 ha Boola fire, January 2021 4,391 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,965 ha Boola fire, January 2018 6,771 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,471 ha Boola fire, January 2022 4,033 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,422 ha Boola fire, January 2017 4,163 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,365 ha Boola fire, January 2024 2,543 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 956 ha Boola fire, January 2023 2,603 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 891 ha Boola fire, December 2024 2,122 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 795 ha Boola fire, January 2016 2,183 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Boola where it started5,184 ha reached on 17 Jan5.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Jan | 31.4 °C | 32 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 22 Jan | 30.0 °C | 24 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 23 Jan | 30.8 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 24 Jan | 31.6 °C | 22 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 25 Jan | 30.9 °C | 20 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 26 Jan | 31.7 °C | 14 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 27 Jan | 32.4 °C | 17 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 28 Jan | 31.9 °C | 23 % | 14 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 29 Jan | 33.3 °C | 19 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 30 Jan | 33.2 °C | 19 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 31 Jan after | 32.5 °C | 30 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 1 Feb after | 31.8 °C | 37 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 2 Feb after | 31.7 °C | 42 % | 24 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 3 Feb after | 25.8 °C | 62 % | 26 km/h | 8.0 mm | Very low 1 |
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 28 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 171 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 119: 7.9 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 · 128Every 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 Boola fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 January 2026 and 30 January 2026: 10 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 5,150 hectares (51.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Boola (5,184 ha, 5.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Guinea (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 (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.