Karimama fire, 15 March 2022 Karimama
The fire started on 15 March 2022 in Karimama, Benin, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,494 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 129th largest in Alibori since 2016 (of 534 with a page). Number 36 in Benin in 2022, of 97.
The power measured by the satellite is low (22.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 2,494ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 15 Mar 2022 – 17 Mar 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 15 Mar
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 70
- in a single hotspot: 23 MW
- Energy released
- 329MW
- 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.
This area had burned before
86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 744 ha in 2016, 481 ha in 2017, 502 ha in 2019, 1,721 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,155 ha that had burned before.
- 1,682 ha Karimama fire, February 2021 9,688 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 744 ha Karimama fire, December 2016 1,638 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 481 ha Karimama fire, January 2017 1,469 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 252 ha Karimama fire, November 2019 6,908 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 213 ha Karimama fire, November 2019 1,045 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 39 ha Karimama fire, November 2021 1,715 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 38 ha Karimama fire, November 2019 3,060 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Karimama where it started2,512 ha reached on 15 Mar0.4 %
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.
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 · 70Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 9,688 haKarimama9 February 2021 · 12 days · 3 km away
- 13,889 haKarimama18 November 2017 · 16 days · 12 km away
- 13,413 haKarimama22 December 2025 · 11 days · 13 km away
- 13,713 haKarimama3 December 2025 · 17 days · 16 km away
- 9,886 haKarimama16 December 2019 · 15 days · 21 km away
- 11,751 haKarimama6 February 2026 · 16 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Karimama fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 15 March 2022 to 17 March 2022 (3 days). The perimeter dates it from 15 March 2022 to 16 March 2022.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,494 hectares (24.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Karimama (2,512 ha, 0.4 %).
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Benin (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 ADM2 (Public Domain). 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.