Douako fire, 13 February 2019 Douako
The fire started on 13 February 2019 in Douako, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,356 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 60th largest in Kankan since 2016 (of 388 with a page). Number 20 in Guinea in 2019, of 123.
- Burnt area
- 4,356ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 13 Feb 2019 – 18 Feb 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 13 Feb
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 146
- in a single hotspot: 61 MW
- Danger at start
- 54
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.2GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
58% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 865 ha in 2016, 1,739 ha in 2017, 739 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,534 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Douako where it started4,385 ha reached on 13 Feb1.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Feb | 36.2 °C | 6 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 14 Feb | 36.3 °C | 16 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 15 Feb | 37.0 °C | 16 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 16 Feb | 38.3 °C | 13 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 17 Feb | 37.0 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 18 Feb | 36.5 °C | 17 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 19 Feb after | 37.1 °C | 14 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 20 Feb after | 34.4 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 21 Feb after | 35.9 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 22 Feb after | 37.4 °C | 8 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 23 Feb after | 36.6 °C | 6 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 24 Feb after | 35.9 °C | 10 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 25 Feb after | 36.1 °C | 13 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 26 Feb after | 35.6 °C | 9 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 27 Feb after | 34.2 °C | 8 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 28 Feb after | 32.0 °C | 10 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
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 · 146Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 13,279 haTokounou25 January 2020 · 9 days · 17 km away
- 72,176 haAlbadariah7 January 2026 · 48 days · 30 km away
- 12,627 haTokounou11 January 2018 · 15 days · 31 km away
- 12,160 haDouako22 January 2021 · 9 days · 33 km away
- 16,530 haAlbadariahFebruary 2019 · 9 days · 35 km away
- 70,029 haManfranJanuary 2017 · 16 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Douako fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 February 2019 and 18 February 2019: 6 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 4,356 hectares (43.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Douako (4,385 ha, 1.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, class Extreme.
- 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.