Déou fire, 17 October 2024 Déou
The fire started on 17 October 2024 in Déou, Burkina Faso, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,529 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 49th largest in Liptako since 2016 (of 222 with a page). Number 46 in Burkina Faso in 2024, of 380.
- Burnt area
- 3,529ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 17 Oct 2024 – 18 Oct 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 17 Oct
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 115
- in a single hotspot: 45 MW
- Danger at start
- 51
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 863MW
- 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 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 23 Oct.
This area had burned before
48% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,681 ha in 2023.
What happened to each town
-
Déou where it started3,550 ha reached on 17 Oct1.7 %
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 Oct | 40.1 °C | 15 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 18 Oct | 39.1 °C | 20 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 19 Oct after | 39.4 °C | 17 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 20 Oct after | 40.6 °C | 12 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 21 Oct after | 39.5 °C | 21 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 22 Oct after | 38.8 °C | 26 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 44 |
| 23 Oct after | 37.7 °C | 32 % | 28 km/h | 1.4 mm | High 32 |
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 October 2024 the air beside the fire reached 38 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 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 · 115Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 26,456 haDéou23 October 2025 · 10 days · 19 km away
- 8,265 haDéou17 October 2025 · 4 days · 27 km away
- 9,509 haKoutougouJanuary 2023 · 4 days · 30 km away
- 37,890 haArbinda26 October 2025 · 8 days · 38 km away
- 26,438 haMondoro2 November 2023 · 5 days · 39 km away
- 9,569 haArbinda27 October 2022 · 4 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Déou fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 October 2024 and 18 October 2024: 2 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 3,529 hectares (35.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Déou (3,550 ha, 1.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.1 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Burkina Faso (OCHA COD-AB). 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 OCHA COD-AB (Institut Geographique Burkina (IGB)) (Creative Commons Attribution for Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY-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.