How long did the Dékoa fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 1 February 2020 to 27 February 2020 (27 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 February 2020 to 20 February 2020.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,519 hectares (65.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dékoa (6,383 ha, 9.9 %); Ndenga (180 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 39.9 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, class Extreme.

Where does this data come from?

From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Central African Republic (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

CF · Central African Republic · 2020-02-01 → 2020-02-27

Dékoa fire, February 2020 Dékoa, Ndenga

Out · last detection 27 Feb 2020, 12:27 UTC

The fire started on 1 February 2020 in Dékoa, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,519 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Kémo since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 72 in Central African Republic in 2020, of 103.

Burnt area: 6,519ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 27days; 1 Feb 2020 – 27 Feb 2020
Municipalities hit: 2; sub-prefectures
Started on: 1 Feb; 2020
Heat detections: 423; in a single hotspot: 148 MW
Danger at start: 48; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 7.2GW; sum of detected power

Play back 27 Feb 2020

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Feb27 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

1245678910111213141516171819202122232427

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

40°high

43km/h · peak gust

10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,155 ha in 2016, 2,626 ha in 2017, 3,737 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,123 ha that had burned before.

1,812 ha Dékoa fire, January 2016 7,581 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Dékoa where it started

6,383 ha reached on 1 Feb

9.9 %
Ndenga

180 ha reached on 7 Feb

0.0 %

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)
1 Feb	35.0 °C	14 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
2 Feb	35.4 °C	15 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
3 Feb	35.4 °C	16 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
4 Feb	34.2 °C	16 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
5 Feb	35.2 °C	17 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
6 Feb	35.3 °C	13 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
7 Feb	37.2 °C	18 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
8 Feb	38.6 °C	14 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
9 Feb	37.5 °C	18 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
10 Feb	37.0 °C	15 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
11 Feb	35.8 °C	15 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
12 Feb	34.6 °C	12 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
13 Feb	35.9 °C	13 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
14 Feb	37.0 °C	14 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
15 Feb	38.0 °C	14 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
16 Feb	38.8 °C	13 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
17 Feb	39.7 °C	13 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
18 Feb	36.6 °C	17 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
19 Feb	37.6 °C	13 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
20 Feb	37.8 °C	20 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
21 Feb	34.9 °C	32 %	24 km/h	0.1 mm	High 37
22 Feb	39.9 °C	14 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
23 Feb	39.5 °C	13 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
24 Feb	38.3 °C	14 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
25 Feb	37.1 °C	14 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
26 Feb	36.1 °C	24 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
27 Feb	39.3 °C	10 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
28 Feb after	39.1 °C	12 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
29 Feb after	39.8 °C	16 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
1 Mar after	36.1 °C	36 %	38 km/h	0.9 mm	High 34
2 Mar after	34.6 °C	43 %	28 km/h	0.2 mm	High 33
3 Mar after	37.6 °C	31 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
4 Mar after	39.1 °C	30 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
5 Mar after	38.1 °C	27 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
6 Mar after	38.9 °C	26 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
7 Mar after	36.7 °C	24 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
8 Mar after	36.4 °C	37 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 25 Jan 2020

After · 5 Mar 2020

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.

Detections table · 423Every 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 Central African Republic ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Dékoa fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 1 February 2020 to 27 February 2020 (27 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 February 2020 to 20 February 2020.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,519 hectares (65.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dékoa (6,383 ha, 9.9 %); Ndenga (180 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 39.9 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?: From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Central African Republic (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

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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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