Foulamory fire, March 2026 Sareboido, Foulamory
The fire started on 5 March 2026 in Foulamory, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,218 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 19th largest in Boké since 2016 (of 237 with a page). Number 37 in Guinea in 2026, of 269.
- Burnt area
- 5,218ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 5 Mar 2026 – 15 Mar 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 5 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 63
- in a single hotspot: 58 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 79MW
- detected power per day, on average
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
57% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 741 ha in 2016, 520 ha in 2020, 787 ha in 2021, 1,813 ha in 2024, 893 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,967 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
4,925 ha reached on 6 Mar8.8 %
-
Foulamory where it started323 ha reached on 5 Mar0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Mar | 37.1 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 6 Mar | 38.2 °C | 21 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 7 Mar | 38.4 °C | 20 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 8 Mar | 39.5 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 9 Mar | 40.0 °C | 18 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 10 Mar | 39.6 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 11 Mar | 39.7 °C | 18 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 12 Mar | 39.8 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 13 Mar | 38.6 °C | 21 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 14 Mar | 38.9 °C | 20 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 15 Mar | 38.1 °C | 28 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 16 Mar after | 37.8 °C | 26 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 17 Mar after | 37.4 °C | 28 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 18 Mar after | 37.0 °C | 29 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 19 Mar after | 36.7 °C | 33 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 20 Mar after | 37.2 °C | 31 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 21 Mar after | 37.6 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 22 Mar after | 37.8 °C | 32 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 23 Mar after | 35.3 °C | 33 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 24 Mar after | 36.9 °C | 30 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 25 Mar after | 36.6 °C | 30 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
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 3 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 78 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 70: 4.7 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 · 63Every 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 Foulamory fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 March 2026 to 15 March 2026 (11 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 March 2026 to 14 March 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,218 hectares (52.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sareboido (4,925 ha, 8.8 %); Foulamory (323 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.0 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 34 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.