Gorama Mende fire, 27 March 2016 Gorama Mende, Wandor
The fire started on 27 March 2016 in Gorama Mende, Sierra Leone, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,721 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 13th largest in Eastern since 2016 (of 263 with a page). Number 11 in Sierra Leone in 2016, of 208.
- Burnt area
- 3,721ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 12days
- 27 Mar 2016 – 7 Apr 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- chiefdoms
- Started on
- 27 Mar
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 118
- in a single hotspot: 125 MW
- Danger at start
- 5
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.2GW
- 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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 8 Apr.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Gorama Mende where it started3,702 ha reached on 27 Mar5.6 %
-
42 ha reached on 29 Mar0.1 %
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 Mar | 32.6 °C | 58 % | 23 km/h | 2.4 mm | Very low 5 |
| 28 Mar | 34.4 °C | 49 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 29 Mar | 36.0 °C | 43 % | 33 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 30 Mar | 34.5 °C | 52 % | 40 km/h | 3.9 mm | Low 6 |
| 31 Mar | 32.6 °C | 41 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 1 Apr | 34.7 °C | 41 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 2 Apr | 35.1 °C | 36 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 3 Apr | 35.8 °C | 36 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 4 Apr | 34.6 °C | 38 % | 27 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 23 |
| 5 Apr | 35.1 °C | 34 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 6 Apr | 35.7 °C | 31 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 7 Apr | 34.9 °C | 35 % | 32 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 29 |
| 8 Apr after | 32.6 °C | 52 % | 32 km/h | 2.1 mm | Low 9 |
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 · 118Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,572 haValunia14 March 2026 · 8 days · 16 km away
- 20,541 haNiawa LengaMarch 2026 · 14 days · 25 km away
- 7,934 haValunia3 March 2019 · 19 days · 26 km away
- 7,099 haValunia27 March 2016 · 14 days · 26 km away
- 5,668 haDodo29 March 2026 · 8 days · 34 km away
- 6,054 haSimbaru14 April 2022 · 6 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Gorama Mende fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 March 2016 and 7 April 2016: 12 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 3,721 hectares (37.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Gorama Mende (3,702 ha, 5.6 %); Wandor (42 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, class High.
- 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.