Dodo fire, 29 March 2026 Dodo, Simbaru, Gorama Kono
The fire started on 29 March 2026 in Dodo, Sierra Leone, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,668 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the 4th largest in Eastern since 2016 (of 263 with a page). Number 10 in Sierra Leone in 2026, of 305.
- Burnt area
- 5,668ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 29 Mar 2026 – 5 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- chiefdoms
- Started on
- 29 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 125
- in a single hotspot: 84 MW
- Danger at start
- 20
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- 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 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 9 Apr.
This area had burned before
5% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 244 ha in 2019, 27 ha in 2023.
What happened to each town
-
Dodo where it started5,582 ha reached on 25 Mar17 %
-
78 ha reached on 5 Apr0.3 %
-
35 ha0.1 %
-
9 ha reached on 25 Mar0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Mar | 36.1 °C | 39 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 30 Mar | 33.5 °C | 44 % | 32 km/h | 3.6 mm | Low 7 |
| 31 Mar | 33.4 °C | 44 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 1 Apr | 33.9 °C | 43 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 2 Apr | 35.2 °C | 36 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 3 Apr | 35.2 °C | 31 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 4 Apr | 34.5 °C | 39 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 5 Apr | 36.2 °C | 28 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 6 Apr after | 36.2 °C | 35 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 7 Apr after | 35.3 °C | 37 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 8 Apr after | 35.8 °C | 32 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 9 Apr after | 34.1 °C | 47 % | 27 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 17 |
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 8 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 50 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 38: 2.5 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 · 125Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 4,409 haDodo30 March 2026 · 8 days · 13 km away
- 4,492 haGorama Kono28 March 2026 · 10 days · 14 km away
- 6,054 haSimbaru14 April 2022 · 6 days · 23 km away
- 4,308 haWandor13 March 2026 · 9 days · 28 km away
- 5,643 haBadjia29 March 2026 · 9 days · 36 km away
- 5,572 haValunia14 March 2026 · 8 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dodo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 March 2026 and 5 April 2026: 8 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 5,668 hectares (56.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Dodo (5,582 ha, 17 %); Simbaru (78 ha, 0.3 %); Gorama Kono (35 ha, 0.1 %); Wandor (9 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Sierra Leone (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
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 geoBoundaries ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). 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.