Douako fire, 18 January 2018 Douako, Albadariah, Sangardo
The fire started on 18 January 2018 in Douako, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 22,404 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the largest fire in Kankan since 2016 (of 388 with a page). The largest in Guinea in 2018, of 107.
- Burnt area
- 22,404ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 18 Jan 2018 – 28 Jan 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 18 Jan
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 747
- in a single hotspot: 132 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 7.2GW
- 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 57 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 29 Jan.
This area had burned before
70% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,701 ha in 2016, 12,292 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 15,610 ha that had burned before.
- 5,463 ha Albadariah fire, January 2016 15,872 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,362 ha Douako fire, January 2017 9,259 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,951 ha Sangardo fire, January 2017 10,235 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,829 ha Douako fire, January 2017 6,118 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Douako where it started13,052 ha reached on 12 Jan4.5 %
-
7,236 ha reached on 12 Jan10 %
-
2,257 ha reached on 15 Jan2.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Jan | 34.0 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 19 Jan | 34.2 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 20 Jan | 34.8 °C | 13 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 21 Jan | 34.5 °C | 13 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 22 Jan | 35.0 °C | 13 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 23 Jan | 34.9 °C | 14 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 24 Jan | 34.5 °C | 19 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 25 Jan | 34.7 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 26 Jan | 34.5 °C | 13 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 27 Jan | 34.3 °C | 16 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 28 Jan | 34.6 °C | 19 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 29 Jan after | 30.4 °C | 34 % | 28 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 21 |
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.
Detections table · 747Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Douako fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 January 2018 and 28 January 2018: 11 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 22,404 hectares (224.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Douako (13,052 ha, 4.5 %); Albadariah (7,236 ha, 10 %); Sangardo (2,257 ha, 2.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Guinea (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 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.