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Djema fire, 4 December 2016 Djema

Out · last detection 13 Jan 2017, 12:03 UTC

The fire started on 4 December 2016 in Djema, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 40 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 137,432 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 5th largest in Haut-Mbomou since 2016 (of 298 with a page). The largest in Central African Republic in 2016, of 165.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Djema · 2017Djema · 2019Djema · 2025Djema · 2018

Burnt area
137,432ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
40days
4 Dec 2016 – 12 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
4 Dec
2016
Heat detections
6,619
in a single hotspot: 217 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Average daily power
1.1GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Dec12 Jan
13 Jan 2017

How it evolved, day by day

4 Dec 2016 · 10 MW · 7 5 Dec 2016 · 52 MW · 3 6 Dec 2016 · 290 MW · 39 7 Dec 2016 · 1,943 MW · 142 8 Dec 2016 · 1,905 MW · 201 9 Dec 2016 · 4,040 MW · 521 10 Dec 2016 · 6,086 MW · 513 11 Dec 2016 · 2,791 MW · 376 12 Dec 2016 · 3,153 MW · 289 13 Dec 2016 · 3,462 MW · 447 14 Dec 2016 · 323 MW · 167 15 Dec 2016 · 1,181 MW · 196 16 Dec 2016 · 1,112 MW · 153 17 Dec 2016 · 1,720 MW · 186 18 Dec 2016 · 1,109 MW · 136 19 Dec 2016 · 960 MW · 220 20 Dec 2016 · 1,502 MW · 249 21 Dec 2016 · 735 MW · 166 22 Dec 2016 · 1,224 MW · 153 23 Dec 2016 · 2,288 MW · 303 24 Dec 2016 · 908 MW · 215 25 Dec 2016 · 663 MW · 206 26 Dec 2016 · 776 MW · 197 27 Dec 2016 · 765 MW · 135 28 Dec 2016 · 600 MW · 87 29 Dec 2016 · 647 MW · 100 30 Dec 2016 · 623 MW · 141 31 Dec 2016 · 719 MW · 250 1 Jan 2017 · 180 MW · 81 2 Jan 2017 · 199 MW · 71 3 Jan 2017 · 449 MW · 66 4 Jan 2017 · 588 MW · 120 5 Jan 2017 · 942 MW · 179 6 Jan 2017 · 463 MW · 50 7 Jan 2017 · 721 MW · 75 8 Jan 2017 · 316 MW · 34 9 Jan 2017 · 323 MW · 44 10 Jan 2017 · 302 MW · 45 11 Jan 2017 · 378 MW · 37 12 Jan 2017 · 46 MW · 15 13 Jan 2017 · 21 MW · 4
4 Dec 10 Dec 16 Dec 22 Dec 28 Dec 3 Jan 9 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

37°high
48km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone one day 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?

20 km
It burned the equivalent of 87% of the area of London (1,374 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
    137,341 ha reached on 4 Dec
    3.8 %

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 area0.25 ha
Residents≈ 40

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.25 hectares of built-up land and about 40 residents (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)
4 Dec 34.6 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Dec 34.7 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
6 Dec 35.4 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
7 Dec 34.2 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
8 Dec 35.0 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 Dec 34.8 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Dec 35.1 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Dec 34.6 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Dec 34.9 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Dec 35.1 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Dec 34.5 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 Dec 33.0 °C 12 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
16 Dec 33.7 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Dec 34.1 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 Dec 34.0 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Dec 33.9 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Dec 34.5 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Dec 35.5 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
22 Dec 35.3 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Dec 36.5 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Dec 36.4 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Dec 35.9 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
26 Dec 34.7 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
27 Dec 34.4 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Dec 34.4 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Dec 35.6 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Dec 35.8 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
31 Dec 35.9 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
1 Jan 36.7 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
2 Jan 35.3 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 Jan 34.7 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Jan 35.5 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 Jan 35.0 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
6 Jan 36.8 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
7 Jan 37.0 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
8 Jan 36.7 °C 9 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
9 Jan 35.6 °C 9 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
10 Jan 36.4 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Jan 37.1 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
12 Jan 37.2 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
13 Jan after 37.0 °C 9 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
14 Jan after 37.4 °C 9 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Jan after 38.4 °C 8 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
16 Jan after 38.7 °C 8 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
17 Jan after 38.5 °C 9 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
18 Jan after 38.9 °C 9 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
19 Jan after 38.7 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
20 Jan after 38.5 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Jan after 38.5 °C 9 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
22 Jan after 38.5 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Nov 2016
After · 19 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 · 6,619Every 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 4 December 2016 to 12 January 2017 (40 days). The perimeter dates it from 6 December 2016 to 5 January 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 137,432 hectares (1,374.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Djema (137,341 ha, 3.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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 6 December 2016 to 5 January 2017. 6,619 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.