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Djema fire, 11 December 2016 Djema, Rafaï

Out · last detection 18 Jan 2017, 12:09 UTC

The fire started on 11 December 2016 in Djema, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 39 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 87,931 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 11th largest in Haut-Mbomou since 2016 (of 298 with a page). Number 4 in Central African Republic in 2016, of 166.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Djema · 2016Djema · 2025Djema · 2020Djema · 2026

Burnt area
87,931ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
39days
11 Dec 2016 – 18 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
2
sub-prefectures
Started on
11 Dec
2016
Heat detections
4,040
in a single hotspot: 283 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Average daily power
722MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Dec18 Jan
18 Jan 2017

How it evolved, day by day

11 Dec 2016 · 87 MW · 14 12 Dec 2016 · 99 MW · 15 13 Dec 2016 · 236 MW · 39 14 Dec 2016 · 1 MW · 2 15 Dec 2016 · 272 MW · 42 16 Dec 2016 · 389 MW · 27 17 Dec 2016 · 207 MW · 19 18 Dec 2016 · 70 MW · 17 19 Dec 2016 · 175 MW · 25 20 Dec 2016 · 590 MW · 73 21 Dec 2016 · 939 MW · 72 22 Dec 2016 · 248 MW · 55 23 Dec 2016 · 505 MW · 88 24 Dec 2016 · 1,353 MW · 165 25 Dec 2016 · 2,224 MW · 397 26 Dec 2016 · 384 MW · 143 27 Dec 2016 · 1,113 MW · 202 28 Dec 2016 · 2,326 MW · 328 29 Dec 2016 · 2,651 MW · 338 30 Dec 2016 · 2,611 MW · 236 31 Dec 2016 · 1,482 MW · 383 1 Jan 2017 · 734 MW · 111 2 Jan 2017 · 1,009 MW · 119 3 Jan 2017 · 1,202 MW · 127 4 Jan 2017 · 1,073 MW · 152 5 Jan 2017 · 1,320 MW · 234 6 Jan 2017 · 934 MW · 130 7 Jan 2017 · 336 MW · 85 8 Jan 2017 · 1,633 MW · 91 9 Jan 2017 · 402 MW · 73 10 Jan 2017 · 304 MW · 69 11 Jan 2017 · 134 MW · 42 12 Jan 2017 · 391 MW · 34 13 Jan 2017 · 160 MW · 12 14 Jan 2017 · 36 MW · 7 15 Jan 2017 · 148 MW · 13 16 Jan 2017 · 107 MW · 31 17 Jan 2017 · 89 MW · 17 18 Jan 2017 · 193 MW · 13
11 Dec 17 Dec 23 Dec 29 Dec 4 Jan 10 Jan 16 Jan

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
47km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

10% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 9,021 ha in 2016.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 56% of the area of London (879 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Djema where it started
    88,114 ha reached on 11 Dec
    2.4 %
  2. Rafaï
    332 ha reached on 27 Dec
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2015
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
11 Dec 35.0 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Dec 35.4 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Dec 35.6 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Dec 34.8 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Dec 32.6 °C 21 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Dec 33.8 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Dec 34.7 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Dec 34.7 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Dec 34.6 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Dec 35.1 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Dec 36.0 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Dec 36.0 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Dec 37.3 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Dec 37.3 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Dec 36.7 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Dec 35.6 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Dec 35.7 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Dec 35.3 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Dec 35.8 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Dec 36.7 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Dec 36.5 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Jan 37.3 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
2 Jan 35.6 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Jan 35.6 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Jan 36.4 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Jan 36.0 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
6 Jan 37.5 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Jan 37.6 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
8 Jan 37.4 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 Jan 36.4 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Jan 36.9 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Jan 37.6 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Jan 38.1 °C 10 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
13 Jan 37.7 °C 9 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
14 Jan 37.6 °C 9 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
15 Jan 38.8 °C 8 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Jan 39.5 °C 8 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
17 Jan 39.3 °C 9 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
18 Jan 39.4 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
19 Jan after 39.4 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Jan after 39.1 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
21 Jan after 39.2 °C 9 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
22 Jan after 39.2 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
23 Jan after 39.7 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
24 Jan after 37.7 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
25 Jan after 36.4 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
26 Jan after 36.9 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Jan after 36.7 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Jan after 37.4 °C 12 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Dec 2016
After · 25 Jan 2017

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 · 4,040Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Central African Republic ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Djema fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 11 December 2016 to 18 January 2017 (39 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 December 2016 to 11 January 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 87,931 hectares (879.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Djema (88,114 ha, 2.4 %); Rafaï (332 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 6 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 18 December 2016 to 11 January 2017. 4,040 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.