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Djema fire, 7 December 2018 Djema

Out · last detection 4 Jan 2019, 00:39 UTC

The fire started on 7 December 2018 in Djema, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 44,474 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 26th largest in Haut-Mbomou since 2016 (of 298 with a page). Number 11 in Central African Republic in 2018, of 81.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Djema · 2017Djema · 2016Djema · 2016Djema · 2016

Burnt area
44,474ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
28days
7 Dec 2018 – 3 Jan 2019
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
7 Dec
2018
Heat detections
2,062
in a single hotspot: 89 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
507MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Dec3 Jan
4 Jan 2019

How it evolved, day by day

7 Dec 2018 · 60 MW · 10 8 Dec 2018 · 263 MW · 26 9 Dec 2018 · 625 MW · 48 10 Dec 2018 · 351 MW · 66 11 Dec 2018 · 936 MW · 67 12 Dec 2018 · 747 MW · 117 13 Dec 2018 · 734 MW · 126 14 Dec 2018 · 721 MW · 140 15 Dec 2018 · 417 MW · 132 16 Dec 2018 · 533 MW · 51 17 Dec 2018 · 781 MW · 81 18 Dec 2018 · 1,461 MW · 194 19 Dec 2018 · 1,127 MW · 148 20 Dec 2018 · 1,383 MW · 127 21 Dec 2018 · 410 MW · 160 22 Dec 2018 · 460 MW · 71 23 Dec 2018 · 251 MW · 57 24 Dec 2018 · 740 MW · 65 25 Dec 2018 · 856 MW · 94 26 Dec 2018 · 143 MW · 37 27 Dec 2018 · 535 MW · 21 28 Dec 2018 · 55 MW · 19 29 Dec 2018 · 232 MW · 37 30 Dec 2018 · 296 MW · 33 31 Dec 2018 · 91 MW · 44 1 Jan 2019 · 197 MW · 16 2 Jan 2019 · 97 MW · 19 3 Jan 2019 · 167 MW · 45 4 Jan 2019 · 23 MW · 11
7 Dec 12 Dec 17 Dec 18 Dec 22 Dec 27 Dec 1 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
44km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 32 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 22,222 ha in 2016, 24,102 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 33,819 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 28% of the area of London (445 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
    44,783 ha reached on 7 Dec
    1.2 %

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 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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)
7 Dec 34.1 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Dec 34.8 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Dec 33.2 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Dec 33.7 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Dec 34.0 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Dec 34.3 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Dec 34.2 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Dec 34.3 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Dec 35.1 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Dec 35.9 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Dec 35.9 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Dec 34.0 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Dec 34.5 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Dec 33.7 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Dec 33.9 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 Dec 33.3 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Dec 33.5 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Dec 34.0 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Dec 35.1 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Dec 35.7 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Dec 36.0 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
28 Dec 35.6 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Dec 35.3 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Dec 35.0 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
31 Dec 33.6 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Jan 34.8 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Jan 36.6 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Jan 36.0 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 Jan after 36.1 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
5 Jan after 36.3 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
6 Jan after 36.0 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Jan after 35.3 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
8 Jan after 35.3 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Jan after 34.9 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
10 Jan after 36.1 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Jan after 36.8 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
12 Jan after 38.0 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
13 Jan after 38.2 °C 13 % 27 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 · 30 Nov 2018
After · 10 Jan 2019

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 · 2,062Every 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 7 December 2018 to 3 January 2019 (28 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 December 2018 to 27 December 2018.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 44,474 hectares (444.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Djema (44,783 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 12 December 2018 to 27 December 2018. 2,062 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 2020, 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.