Firawa fire, January 2018 Firawa, Manfran
The fire started on 19 January 2018 in Firawa, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,245 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 25th largest in Faranah since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 10 in Guinea in 2018, of 107.
- Burnt area
- 6,245ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 19 Jan 2018 – 24 Jan 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 19 Jan
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 273
- in a single hotspot: 208 MW
- Danger at start
- 39
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.2GW
- 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 45 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.0 mm on 2 Feb.
This area had burned before
90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,871 ha in 2016, 4,171 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,641 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Firawa where it started4,368 ha reached on 13 Jan12 %
-
1,916 ha reached on 18 Jan2.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Jan | 34.7 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 20 Jan | 34.7 °C | 14 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 21 Jan | 34.5 °C | 13 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 22 Jan | 34.9 °C | 13 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 23 Jan | 35.0 °C | 14 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 24 Jan | 34.3 °C | 25 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 25 Jan after | 34.7 °C | 13 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 26 Jan after | 34.2 °C | 19 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 27 Jan after | 34.2 °C | 21 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 28 Jan after | 34.4 °C | 23 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 29 Jan after | 33.2 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very high 39 |
| 30 Jan after | 36.1 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 31 Jan after | 35.1 °C | 29 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 1 Feb after | 34.6 °C | 33 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 37 |
| 2 Feb after | 30.9 °C | 47 % | 24 km/h | 7.0 mm | Low 5 |
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 · 273Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 26,689 haManfran5 February 2019 · 11 days · 5 km away
- 40,177 haManfranJanuary 2022 · 30 days · 11 km away
- 25,026 haFirawaJanuary 2016 · 13 days · 11 km away
- 26,206 haManfran23 January 2021 · 9 days · 20 km away
- 19,542 haManfran24 January 2020 · 16 days · 21 km away
- 72,176 haAlbadariah7 January 2026 · 48 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Firawa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 January 2018 and 24 January 2018: 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 6,245 hectares (62.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Firawa (4,368 ha, 12 %); Manfran (1,916 ha, 2.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.