Guinguan fire, 24 March 2025 Guinguan
The fire started on 24 March 2025 in Guinguan, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,204 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 60th largest in Boké since 2016 (of 237 with a page). Number 13 in Guinea in 2025, of 70.
- Burnt area
- 3,204ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 24 Mar 2025 – 29 Mar 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 24 Mar
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 108
- in a single hotspot: 43 MW
- Danger at start
- 45
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 810MW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 891 ha in 2016, 806 ha in 2017, 1,167 ha in 2020, 1,867 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,802 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Guinguan where it started3,223 ha reached on 24 Mar2.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Mar | 37.3 °C | 27 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 25 Mar | 36.5 °C | 28 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 26 Mar | 39.4 °C | 16 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 27 Mar | 39.2 °C | 17 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 28 Mar | 37.6 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 29 Mar | 40.1 °C | 16 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 30 Mar after | 38.1 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 31 Mar after | 39.9 °C | 20 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 1 Apr after | 38.1 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 2 Apr after | 38.0 °C | 29 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 3 Apr after | 37.7 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 4 Apr after | 40.0 °C | 19 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 5 Apr after | 38.9 °C | 26 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 6 Apr after | 39.3 °C | 25 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 7 Apr after | 37.8 °C | 33 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 8 Apr after | 39.1 °C | 29 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
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 29 March 2025 the air beside the fire reached 81 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 46: 3.1 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 · 108Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,480 haGuinguanMarch 2020 · 5 days · 8 km away
- 3,087 haKounsitel19 February 2026 · 4 days · 21 km away
- 10,341 haKamabiFebruary 2026 · 13 days · 30 km away
- 3,832 haKounsitel31 March 2026 · 10 days · 31 km away
- 2,788 haKounsitelApril 2021 · 2 days · 33 km away
- 3,236 haMadina WoraApril 2019 · 5 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Guinguan fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 March 2025 and 29 March 2025: 6 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 3,204 hectares (32.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Guinguan (3,223 ha, 2.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.1 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Guinea (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 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.