Douako fire, 22 January 2024 Douako, Sangardo
The fire started on 22 January 2024 in Douako, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,606 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 53th largest in Kankan since 2016 (of 388 with a page). Number 13 in Guinea in 2024, of 118.
- Burnt area
- 4,606ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 22 Jan 2024 – 26 Jan 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 22 Jan
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 137
- in a single hotspot: 81 MW
- Danger at start
- 43
- Very high · 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 52 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 423 ha in 2016, 2,292 ha in 2017, 3,121 ha in 2018, 716 ha in 2019, 3,227 ha in 2020, 2,043 ha in 2021, 2,526 ha in 2022, 558 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,616 ha that had burned before.
- 3,004 ha Douako fire, January 2018 22,404 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,820 ha Douako fire, January 2021 5,771 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,620 ha Douako fire, February 2020 2,565 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,512 ha Douako fire, January 2022 2,621 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 981 ha Sangardo fire, January 2017 10,235 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 739 ha Douako fire, February 2022 2,215 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 543 ha Douako fire, February 2019 9,318 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 274 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 started4,354 ha reached on 23 Jan1.5 %
-
279 ha reached on 25 Jan0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Jan | 35.0 °C | 14 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 23 Jan | 36.1 °C | 10 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 24 Jan | 35.7 °C | 7 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 25 Jan | 36.1 °C | 11 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 26 Jan | 35.0 °C | 11 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 27 Jan after | 35.0 °C | 9 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 28 Jan after | 34.3 °C | 14 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 29 Jan after | 33.2 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 30 Jan after | 34.8 °C | 13 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 31 Jan after | 35.4 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 1 Feb after | 35.2 °C | 13 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 2 Feb after | 35.8 °C | 13 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 3 Feb after | 35.3 °C | 9 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 4 Feb after | 34.8 °C | 11 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 5 Feb after | 36.0 °C | 13 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 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 · 137Every 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 22 January 2024 and 26 January 2024: 5 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 4,606 hectares (46.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Douako (4,354 ha, 1.5 %); Sangardo (279 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 40 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.