Douako fire, 20 January 2021 Douako
The fire started on 20 January 2021 in Douako, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,456 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 100th largest in Kankan since 2016 (of 388 with a page). Number 28 in Guinea in 2021, of 111.
- Burnt area
- 3,456ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 20 Jan 2021 – 25 Jan 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 20 Jan
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 120
- in a single hotspot: 59 MW
- Danger at start
- 47
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 885MW
- 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 34 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 650 ha in 2016, 1,201 ha in 2017, 1,348 ha in 2018, 3,040 ha in 2019, 3,059 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,427 ha that had burned before.
- 3,036 ha Douako fire, February 2019 9,318 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,712 ha Douako fire, January 2020 5,082 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,348 ha Douako fire, January 2018 22,404 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,156 ha Douako fire, January 2017 6,118 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 104 ha Albadariah fire, January 2016 15,872 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4 ha Douako fire, March 2019 3,303 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Douako where it started3,477 ha reached on 20 Jan1.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Jan | 34.7 °C | 15 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 21 Jan | 34.7 °C | 13 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 22 Jan | 34.8 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 23 Jan | 34.3 °C | 12 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 24 Jan | 34.5 °C | 12 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 25 Jan | 35.5 °C | 10 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 26 Jan after | 35.6 °C | 10 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 27 Jan after | 36.4 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 28 Jan after | 36.2 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 29 Jan after | 35.1 °C | 18 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 30 Jan after | 36.0 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 31 Jan after | 35.7 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 1 Feb after | 36.1 °C | 7 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 2 Feb after | 35.2 °C | 18 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 3 Feb after | 35.9 °C | 20 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 4 Feb after | 36.1 °C | 19 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
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 · 120Every 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 20 January 2021 and 25 January 2021: 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 3,456 hectares (34.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Douako (3,477 ha, 1.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.