Gouiné fire, 14 January 2021 Gouiné, Guintéguéla
The fire started on 14 January 2021 in Gouiné, Côte d’Ivoire, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 24,388 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 3th largest in Montagnes since 2016 (of 123 with a page). Number 2 in Côte d’Ivoire in 2021, of 123.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Gouiné · 2017Gouiné · 2020Gouiné · 2020Gouiné · 2018
- Burnt area
- 24,388ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 22days
- 14 Jan 2021 – 4 Feb 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 14 Jan
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 772
- in a single hotspot: 71 MW
- Danger at start
- 24
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 266MW
- 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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8,681 ha in 2016, 17,274 ha in 2017, 8,651 ha in 2018, 11,334 ha in 2019, 18,357 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 22,850 ha that had burned before.
- 10,442 ha Gouiné fire, December 2017 25,038 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8,945 ha Gouiné fire, January 2020 14,988 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,925 ha Gouiné fire, February 2020 6,413 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,583 ha Gouiné fire, January 2018 8,882 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,063 ha Gouiné fire, January 2016 8,848 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,938 ha Gouiné fire, January 2019 6,073 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,721 ha Gouiné fire, December 2018 4,541 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,634 ha Gouiné fire, January 2020 4,496 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Gouiné where it started22,504 ha reached on 14 Jan16 %
-
2,042 ha reached on 14 Jan1.4 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Inside the perimeter there were about 0.11 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Jan | 34.7 °C | 30 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 15 Jan | 34.7 °C | 28 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 16 Jan | 34.3 °C | 21 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 17 Jan | 34.5 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 18 Jan | 35.1 °C | 16 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 19 Jan | 35.5 °C | 28 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 20 Jan | 34.4 °C | 33 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 21 Jan | 34.5 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 22 Jan | 35.0 °C | 19 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 23 Jan | 34.4 °C | 15 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 24 Jan | 34.8 °C | 15 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 25 Jan | 35.6 °C | 20 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 26 Jan | 36.0 °C | 21 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 27 Jan | 36.1 °C | 24 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 28 Jan | 35.3 °C | 32 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 29 Jan | 36.0 °C | 28 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 30 Jan | 35.9 °C | 27 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 31 Jan | 36.2 °C | 19 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 1 Feb | 35.8 °C | 18 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 2 Feb | 35.2 °C | 31 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 3 Feb | 36.5 °C | 26 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 4 Feb | 36.2 °C | 30 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 5 Feb after | 36.9 °C | 30 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 6 Feb after | 36.4 °C | 31 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 7 Feb after | 37.6 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 8 Feb after | 37.2 °C | 24 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 9 Feb after | 38.0 °C | 18 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 10 Feb after | 38.1 °C | 17 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 11 Feb after | 37.8 °C | 24 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 12 Feb after | 38.3 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 13 Feb after | 37.1 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 14 Feb after | 37.4 °C | 30 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
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 · 772Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 15,503 haGouiné1 January 2019 · 18 days · 4 km away
- 14,988 haGouiné25 January 2020 · 23 days · 4 km away
- 9,951 haGuintéguéla30 December 2019 · 16 days · 6 km away
- 21,060 haGouiné6 January 2024 · 32 days · 8 km away
- 11,688 haGouiné11 January 2022 · 22 days · 8 km away
- 36,986 haGouiné7 January 2026 · 28 days · 13 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Gouiné fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 January 2021 to 4 February 2021 (22 days). The perimeter dates it from 15 January 2021 to 28 January 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 24,388 hectares (243.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Gouiné (22,504 ha, 16 %); Guintéguéla (2,042 ha, 1.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Côte d’Ivoire (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.
Emergency number: 180 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 2 February 2021 → 4 February 2021.
- Start date: 15 January 2021 → 14 January 2021.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 15 January 2021 to 28 January 2021. 772 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.