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Gorouol fire, October 2025 Bankilaré, Gorouol, Ayérou

Out · last detection 28 Oct 2025, 14:02 UTC

The fire started on 26 October 2025 in Gorouol, Niger, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,109 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 7th largest in Tillabéri since 2016 (of 244 with a page). Number 11 in Niger in 2025, of 161.

Burnt area
5,109ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
26 Oct 2025 – 28 Oct 2025
Municipalities hit
4
communes
Started on
26 Oct
2025
Heat detections
102
in a single hotspot: 121 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Oct 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Oct28 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

262728

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

41°high
28km/h · peak gust
4%lowest humidity

It had gone 26 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Bankilaré
    3,827 ha reached on 26 Oct
    2.7 %
  2. Gorouol where it started
    1,268 ha reached on 26 Oct
    0.4 %
  3. Ayérou
    27 ha
    0.0 %
  4. Dessa
    21 ha
    0.0 %

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)
26 Oct 40.1 °C 13 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
27 Oct 40.6 °C 7 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
28 Oct 41.0 °C 4 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
29 Oct after 39.9 °C 9 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
30 Oct after 40.3 °C 7 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
31 Oct after 39.8 °C 10 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
1 Nov after 40.0 °C 5 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
2 Nov after 39.1 °C 7 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
3 Nov after 38.1 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
4 Nov after 38.0 °C 12 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
5 Nov after 38.0 °C 9 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
6 Nov after 39.1 °C 9 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
7 Nov after 38.5 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 19 Oct 2025
After · 4 Nov 2025

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 · Copernicus

On 31 October 2025 the air beside the fire reached 27 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak27 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1069 µg/m³
Optical depth0.25
2425262728293031
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 102Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Niger ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Gorouol fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 October 2025 and 28 October 2025: 3 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 5,109 hectares (51.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Bankilaré (3,827 ha, 2.7 %); Gorouol (1,268 ha, 0.4 %); Ayérou (27 ha, 0.0 %); Dessa (21 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.0 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Niger (OCHA COD-AB). 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.

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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 OCHA COD-AB (IGNN) (Creative Commons Attribution for Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY-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.