Fouli fire, 25 October 2019 Fouli
The fire started on 25 October 2019 in Fouli, Chad, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,123 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 40th largest in Lac since 2016 (of 44 with a page). Number 132 in Chad in 2019, of 154.
- Burnt area
- 2,123ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 25 Oct 2019 – 28 Oct 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- departments
- Started on
- 25 Oct
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 26
- in a single hotspot: 48 MW
- Energy released
- 357MW
- 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.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 625 ha in 2016, 1,640 ha in 2017, 2,175 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,018 ha that had burned before.
- 1,640 ha Fouli fire, October 2017 42,926 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 625 ha Fouli fire, October 2016 2,280 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 476 ha Fouli fire, July 2018 2,453 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 439 ha Bosso fire, October 2018 22,697 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Fouli where it started2,134 ha reached on 25 Oct0.3 %
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.
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 · 26Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 42,926 haFouli2 October 2017 · 16 days · 17 km away
- 27,753 haAbadam28 October 2019 · 10 days · 18 km away
- 57,635 haKaya27 September 2016 · 38 days · 22 km away
- 23,249 haKayaOctober 2018 · 24 days · 23 km away
- 43,877 haAbadam8 October 2021 · 36 days · 27 km away
- 31,926 haAbadamOctober 2016 · 34 days · 29 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Fouli fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 October 2019 and 28 October 2019: 4 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 2,123 hectares (21.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Fouli (2,134 ha, 0.3 %).
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Chad (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 ADM2 (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.