Gouiné fire, 7 January 2026 Gouiné, Guintéguéla, Gbonné
The fire started on 7 January 2026 in Gouiné, Côte d’Ivoire, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 36,986 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the largest fire in Montagnes since 2016 (of 123 with a page). The largest in Côte d’Ivoire in 2026, of 136.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Gouiné · 2017Gouiné · 2018Gouiné · 2021Gouiné · 2022
- Burnt area
- 36,986ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 28days
- 7 Jan 2026 – 3 Feb 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 7 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 862
- in a single hotspot: 120 MW
- Danger at start
- 25
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 242MW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7,895 ha in 2016, 22,920 ha in 2017, 13,233 ha in 2018, 23,071 ha in 2019, 24,305 ha in 2020, 14,551 ha in 2021, 16,754 ha in 2022, 13,308 ha in 2023, 22,901 ha in 2024, 3,166 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 35,906 ha that had burned before.
- 15,763 ha Gouiné fire, December 2017 25,038 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 12,924 ha Gouiné fire, December 2018 15,503 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9,712 ha Gouiné fire, January 2021 24,388 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8,731 ha Gouiné fire, January 2022 11,688 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,543 ha Gouiné fire, January 2020 14,988 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,380 ha Gouiné fire, January 2024 21,060 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,355 ha Gouiné fire, January 2018 9,706 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,375 ha Sifié fire, December 2022 10,668 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 started25,130 ha reached on 8 Jan18 %
-
11,841 ha reached on 8 Jan8.1 %
-
162 ha0.2 %
-
89 ha reached on 23 Jan0.2 %
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 2025Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Jan | 35.0 °C | 34 % | 34 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 25 |
| 8 Jan | 30.7 °C | 28 % | 36 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 27 |
| 9 Jan | 35.2 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 10 Jan | 35.4 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 11 Jan | 34.9 °C | 15 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 12 Jan | 34.7 °C | 28 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 13 Jan | 34.5 °C | 32 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 14 Jan | 33.7 °C | 34 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 15 Jan | 34.6 °C | 36 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 16 Jan | 34.4 °C | 39 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 17 Jan | 35.0 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 18 Jan | 35.6 °C | 31 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 19 Jan | 34.9 °C | 31 % | 24 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 31 |
| 20 Jan | 34.1 °C | 39 % | 34 km/h | 1.6 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 21 Jan | 35.0 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 28 |
| 22 Jan | 32.8 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 23 Jan | 34.3 °C | 15 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 24 Jan | 34.9 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 25 Jan | 34.9 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 26 Jan | 34.8 °C | 5 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 27 Jan | 35.0 °C | 11 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 28 Jan | 36.0 °C | 15 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 29 Jan | 36.4 °C | 14 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 30 Jan | 36.5 °C | 18 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 31 Jan | 35.9 °C | 28 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 1 Feb | 36.3 °C | 30 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 2 Feb | 35.9 °C | 35 % | 23 km/h | 2.2 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 3 Feb | 29.5 °C | 48 % | 22 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 4 Feb after | 36.1 °C | 20 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 5 Feb after | 35.8 °C | 20 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 6 Feb after | 36.2 °C | 26 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 7 Feb after | 37.3 °C | 23 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 8 Feb after | 37.2 °C | 25 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 9 Feb after | 36.4 °C | 16 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 10 Feb after | 35.8 °C | 21 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 11 Feb after | 35.5 °C | 30 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 12 Feb after | 36.9 °C | 26 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 13 Feb after | 34.1 °C | 37 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 17 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 70 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 61: 4.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 862Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 11,688 haGouiné11 January 2022 · 22 days · 6 km away
- 15,503 haGouiné25 December 2018 · 29 days · 10 km away
- 24,388 haGouiné14 January 2021 · 22 days · 13 km away
- 21,060 haGouiné6 January 2024 · 32 days · 14 km away
- 14,988 haGouiné25 January 2020 · 23 days · 14 km away
- 9,951 haGuintéguéla30 December 2019 · 16 days · 19 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Gouiné fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 January 2026 and 3 February 2026: 28 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 36,986 hectares (369.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Gouiné (25,130 ha, 18 %); Guintéguéla (11,841 ha, 8.1 %); Gbonné (162 ha, 0.2 %); Kamalo (89 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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; 9 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 862 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 2025, 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.