Gbane fire, February 2019 Gbane, Fiama, Soa
The fire started on 27 February 2019 in Gbane, Sierra Leone, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,961 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 24th largest in Eastern since 2016 (of 263 with a page). Number 18 in Sierra Leone in 2019, of 180.
- Burnt area
- 2,961ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 27 Feb 2019 – 6 Mar 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- chiefdoms
- Started on
- 27 Feb
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 224
- in a single hotspot: 58 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · 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 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.8 mm on 12 Mar.
This area had burned before
9% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 256 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
Gbane where it started1,148 ha reached on 28 Feb3.1 %
-
1,018 ha reached on 28 Feb3.6 %
-
814 ha reached on 28 Feb1.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Feb | 34.5 °C | 9 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 28 Feb | 32.6 °C | 17 % | 26 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 43 |
| 1 Mar | 35.0 °C | 10 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 2 Mar | 34.2 °C | 11 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 3 Mar | 34.5 °C | 12 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 4 Mar | 34.5 °C | 15 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 5 Mar | 34.8 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 6 Mar | 36.5 °C | 13 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 7 Mar after | 36.3 °C | 21 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 8 Mar after | 35.0 °C | 23 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 9 Mar after | 34.6 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 10 Mar after | 32.9 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 11 Mar after | 32.9 °C | 40 % | 28 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 30 |
| 12 Mar after | 33.9 °C | 33 % | 32 km/h | 2.8 mm | Moderate 17 |
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 · 224Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Gbane fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 February 2019 and 6 March 2019: 8 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 2,961 hectares (29.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Gbane (1,148 ha, 3.1 %); Fiama (1,018 ha, 3.6 %); Soa (814 ha, 1.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Sierra Leone (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 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). 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.