Boola fire, 19 January 2026 Foumbadou, Boola
The fire started on 19 January 2026 in Boola, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,131 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 14th largest in Nzérékoré since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 27 in Guinea in 2026, of 269.
- Burnt area
- 6,131ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 19 Jan 2026 – 31 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 19 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 126
- in a single hotspot: 189 MW
- Danger at start
- 20
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 987MW
- 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 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.8 mm on 3 Feb.
This area had burned before
86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 318 ha in 2016, 1,154 ha in 2017, 1,287 ha in 2018, 362 ha in 2019, 808 ha in 2020, 3,507 ha in 2021, 1,589 ha in 2022, 643 ha in 2023, 1,587 ha in 2024, 1,001 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,294 ha that had burned before.
- 3,507 ha Foumbadou fire, January 2021 4,616 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 885 ha Foumbadou fire, December 2022 3,969 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 748 ha Foumbadou fire, December 2024 3,072 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 704 ha Womey fire, January 2022 3,186 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
3,087 ha reached on 19 Jan2.9 %
-
Boola where it started3,084 ha reached on 18 Jan3.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Jan | 33.8 °C | 28 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 20 Jan | 32.4 °C | 29 % | 25 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 21 Jan | 33.1 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 22 Jan | 31.2 °C | 21 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 23 Jan | 32.7 °C | 18 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 24 Jan | 33.4 °C | 19 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 25 Jan | 33.1 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 26 Jan | 33.5 °C | 8 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 27 Jan | 33.8 °C | 13 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 28 Jan | 33.4 °C | 24 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 29 Jan | 35.2 °C | 16 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 30 Jan | 35.1 °C | 17 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 31 Jan | 34.1 °C | 28 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 1 Feb after | 34.0 °C | 33 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 28 |
| 2 Feb after | 33.9 °C | 39 % | 26 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 27 |
| 3 Feb after | 27.4 °C | 67 % | 27 km/h | 4.8 mm | Very low 2 |
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 146 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 100: 6.7 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 · 126Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 4,616 haFoumbadou13 January 2021 · 8 days · 0 km away
- 4,616 haFoumbadouJanuary 2026 · 9 days · 8 km away
- 6,381 haLainé21 January 2026 · 9 days · 24 km away
- 5,156 haFoumbadou27 January 2022 · 8 days · 30 km away
- 5,150 haBoola21 January 2026 · 10 days · 30 km away
- 6,771 haBoola10 January 2018 · 14 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Boola fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 January 2026 and 31 January 2026: 13 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 6,131 hectares (61.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Foumbadou (3,087 ha, 2.9 %); Boola (3,084 ha, 3.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 35 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 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.