Guintéguéla fire, January 2023 Guintéguéla, Gouiné
The fire started on 24 January 2023 in Guintéguéla, Côte d’Ivoire, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,397 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 5th largest in Woroba since 2016 (of 128 with a page). Number 7 in Côte d’Ivoire in 2023, of 116.
- Burnt area
- 4,397ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 24 Jan 2023 – 7 Feb 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 24 Jan
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 158
- in a single hotspot: 44 MW
- Danger at start
- 31
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 927MW
- 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 49 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.0 mm on 8 Feb.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,955 ha in 2016, 2,040 ha in 2017, 2,081 ha in 2018, 4,375 ha in 2019, 2,621 ha in 2020, 1,494 ha in 2021, 3,102 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,425 ha that had burned before.
- 3,102 ha Gouiné fire, January 2022 11,688 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,460 ha Gouiné fire, January 2019 15,503 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,081 ha Gouiné fire, January 2018 9,706 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,955 ha Guintéguéla fire, December 2016 3,618 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,667 ha Gouiné fire, December 2017 25,038 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,529 ha Guintéguéla fire, December 2019 2,669 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,042 ha Guintéguéla fire, January 2021 2,405 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 800 ha Gouiné fire, January 2020 14,988 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Guintéguéla where it started2,358 ha reached on 24 Jan1.6 %
-
2,067 ha reached on 1 Feb1.5 %
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 Jan | 36.3 °C | 34 % | 24 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 31 |
| 25 Jan | 35.1 °C | 39 % | 28 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 29 |
| 26 Jan | 37.4 °C | 27 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 27 Jan | 35.3 °C | 38 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 32 |
| 28 Jan | 37.1 °C | 22 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 29 Jan | 35.8 °C | 29 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 30 Jan | 36.6 °C | 24 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 31 Jan | 37.0 °C | 17 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 1 Feb | 36.8 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 2 Feb | 36.7 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 3 Feb | 36.1 °C | 29 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 4 Feb | 37.0 °C | 19 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 5 Feb | 36.2 °C | 24 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 6 Feb | 37.2 °C | 22 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 7 Feb | 35.7 °C | 33 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 8 Feb after | 36.3 °C | 34 % | 27 km/h | 7.0 mm | Low 8 |
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 · 158Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 36,986 haGouiné7 January 2026 · 28 days · 2 km away
- 11,688 haGouiné11 January 2022 · 22 days · 5 km away
- 15,503 haGouiné1 January 2019 · 22 days · 8 km away
- 24,388 haGouiné15 January 2021 · 19 days · 11 km away
- 14,988 haGouiné29 January 2020 · 13 days · 12 km away
- 21,060 haGouiné6 January 2024 · 32 days · 13 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Guintéguéla fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 24 January 2023 to 7 February 2023 (15 days). The perimeter dates it from 31 January 2023 to 4 February 2023.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,397 hectares (44.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Guintéguéla (2,358 ha, 1.6 %); Gouiné (2,067 ha, 1.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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
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.