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Djema fire, 15 December 2016 Djema

Out · last detection 17 Jan 2017, 10:47 UTC

The fire started on 15 December 2016 in Djema, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 33 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 25,023 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 48th largest in Haut-Mbomou since 2016 (of 298 with a page). Number 19 in Central African Republic in 2016, of 166.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Djema · 2016Djema · 2019Djema · 2025Djema · 2016

Burnt area
25,023ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
33days
15 Dec 2016 – 16 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
15 Dec
2016
Heat detections
1,270
in a single hotspot: 263 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Average daily power
254MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Dec16 Jan
17 Jan 2017

How it evolved, day by day

15 Dec 2016 · 782 MW · 46 16 Dec 2016 · 20 MW · 2 17 Dec 2016 · 31 MW · 5 18 Dec 2016 · 143 MW · 20 19 Dec 2016 · 58 MW · 16 20 Dec 2016 · 1 MW · 2 21 Dec 2016 · 14 MW · 5 22 Dec 2016 · 307 MW · 34 23 Dec 2016 · 1,044 MW · 54 24 Dec 2016 · 225 MW · 51 25 Dec 2016 · 333 MW · 102 26 Dec 2016 · 163 MW · 65 27 Dec 2016 · 195 MW · 43 28 Dec 2016 · 310 MW · 49 29 Dec 2016 · 428 MW · 73 30 Dec 2016 · 354 MW · 64 31 Dec 2016 · 475 MW · 98 1 Jan 2017 · 373 MW · 29 2 Jan 2017 · 234 MW · 49 3 Jan 2017 · 151 MW · 21 4 Jan 2017 · 382 MW · 53 5 Jan 2017 · 788 MW · 144 6 Jan 2017 · 495 MW · 51 7 Jan 2017 · 233 MW · 59 8 Jan 2017 · 186 MW · 16 9 Jan 2017 · 50 MW · 18 10 Jan 2017 · 61 MW · 10 11 Jan 2017 · 115 MW · 12 12 Jan 2017 · 28 MW · 8 13 Jan 2017 · 508 MW · 46 14 Jan 2017 · 74 MW · 14 15 Jan 2017 · 6 MW · 4 16 Jan 2017 · 74 MW · 6 17 Jan 2017 · 5 MW · 1
15 Dec 20 Dec 23 Dec 25 Dec 30 Dec 4 Jan 9 Jan 14 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

39°high
47km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 16% of the area of London (250 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
    25,166 ha reached on 15 Dec
    0.7 %

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)
15 Dec 33.0 °C 18 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Dec 33.9 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Dec 34.8 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Dec 34.7 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Dec 34.6 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Dec 35.1 °C 16 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Dec 35.9 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Dec 35.8 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Dec 36.7 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Dec 36.5 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Dec 36.4 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Dec 35.4 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 Dec 35.4 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Dec 35.1 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Dec 35.8 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Dec 36.4 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
31 Dec 36.6 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Jan 37.2 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Jan 35.8 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Jan 35.4 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Jan 36.2 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Jan 35.5 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Jan 37.1 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Jan 37.5 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Jan 37.1 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Jan 36.2 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Jan 37.0 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Jan 37.6 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Jan 37.4 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
13 Jan 37.4 °C 9 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
14 Jan 37.4 °C 9 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Jan 38.5 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
16 Jan 38.9 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
17 Jan after 38.7 °C 9 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
18 Jan after 39.0 °C 9 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
19 Jan after 39.0 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Jan after 39.0 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Jan after 39.0 °C 9 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
22 Jan after 39.0 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
23 Jan after 39.5 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
24 Jan after 37.1 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Jan after 35.9 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Jan after 36.6 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Dec 2016
After · 23 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 · 1,270Every 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 15 December 2016 to 16 January 2017 (33 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 December 2016 to 10 January 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 25,023 hectares (250.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Djema (25,166 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 22 December 2016 to 10 January 2017. 1,270 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.