Douako fire, 13 March 2024 Douako, Gnaléah
The fire started on 13 March 2024 in Douako, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,958 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 150th largest in Kankan since 2016 (of 388 with a page). Number 37 in Guinea in 2024, of 118.
- Burnt area
- 2,958ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 13 Mar 2024 – 19 Mar 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 13 Mar
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 79
- in a single hotspot: 100 MW
- Danger at start
- 56
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- 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
84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 775 ha in 2020, 76 ha in 2022, 1,977 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,475 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Douako where it started2,561 ha reached on 10 Mar0.9 %
-
417 ha reached on 12 Mar0.4 %
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 Mar | 39.9 °C | 17 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 14 Mar | 39.8 °C | 15 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 15 Mar | 38.8 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 16 Mar | 39.0 °C | 23 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 17 Mar | 39.8 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 18 Mar | 40.0 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 19 Mar | 38.4 °C | 17 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 20 Mar after | 37.4 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 21 Mar after | 37.6 °C | 32 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 22 Mar after | 37.9 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 23 Mar after | 38.2 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 24 Mar after | 38.1 °C | 20 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 25 Mar after | 38.2 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 26 Mar after | 37.9 °C | 25 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 27 Mar after | 38.4 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 28 Mar after | 37.6 °C | 29 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 29 Mar after | 39.2 °C | 23 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 12 March 2024 the air beside the fire reached 74 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 50: 3.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 79Every 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 13 March 2024 and 19 March 2024: 7 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 2,958 hectares (29.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Douako (2,561 ha, 0.9 %); Gnaléah (417 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.0 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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.