Douako fire, 15 January 2024 Douako, Tokounou
The fire started on 15 January 2024 in Douako, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,988 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 34th largest in Kankan since 2016 (of 388 with a page). Number 8 in Guinea in 2024, of 118.
- Burnt area
- 5,988ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 15 Jan 2024 – 29 Jan 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 15 Jan
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 262
- in a single hotspot: 145 MW
- Danger at start
- 38
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.2GW
- 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 46 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 161 ha in 2016, 1,058 ha in 2017, 1,695 ha in 2018, 2,497 ha in 2019, 2,901 ha in 2020, 2,917 ha in 2021, 3,316 ha in 2022, 2,767 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,673 ha that had burned before.
- 3,051 ha Tokounou fire, February 2022 8,436 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,862 ha Douako fire, January 2020 3,224 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,723 ha Douako fire, February 2019 4,356 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,704 ha Douako fire, January 2021 3,350 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,598 ha Douako fire, January 2023 3,161 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,453 ha Douako fire, January 2018 5,883 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,169 ha Douako fire, January 2023 2,658 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 837 ha Tokounou fire, January 2020 13,279 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Douako where it started6,015 ha reached on 8 Jan2.1 %
-
12 ha reached on 9 Jan0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Jan | 34.3 °C | 24 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 16 Jan | 35.0 °C | 23 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 17 Jan | 35.1 °C | 16 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 18 Jan | 34.0 °C | 17 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 19 Jan | 33.5 °C | 28 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 20 Jan | 34.1 °C | 28 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 21 Jan | 34.8 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 22 Jan | 34.5 °C | 15 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 23 Jan | 35.5 °C | 11 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 24 Jan | 34.9 °C | 12 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 25 Jan | 35.3 °C | 13 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 26 Jan | 34.1 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 27 Jan | 34.0 °C | 15 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 28 Jan | 33.2 °C | 16 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 29 Jan | 32.4 °C | 17 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 30 Jan after | 33.8 °C | 15 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 31 Jan after | 34.6 °C | 13 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 1 Feb after | 34.5 °C | 12 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 2 Feb after | 34.7 °C | 15 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 3 Feb after | 34.3 °C | 17 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 4 Feb after | 33.9 °C | 16 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 5 Feb after | 34.9 °C | 13 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 6 Feb after | 35.0 °C | 13 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 7 Feb after | 34.5 °C | 13 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 8 Feb after | 35.9 °C | 15 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
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 · 262Every 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 · 28 km away
- 12,627 haTokounou11 January 2018 · 15 days · 29 km away
- 12,160 haDouako22 January 2021 · 9 days · 30 km away
- 16,530 haAlbadariahFebruary 2019 · 9 days · 32 km away
- 70,029 haManfranJanuary 2017 · 16 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Douako fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 January 2024 and 29 January 2024: 15 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 5,988 hectares (59.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Douako (6,015 ha, 2.1 %); Tokounou (12 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.