Kasunko fire, January 2019 Kasunko, Tambakha, Wara Wara Bafod
The fire started on 21 January 2019 in Kasunko, Sierra Leone, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,768 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 31th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 1112 with a page). Number 8 in Sierra Leone in 2019, of 180.
- Burnt area
- 4,768ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 21 Jan 2019 – 29 Jan 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- chiefdoms
- Started on
- 21 Jan
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 131
- in a single hotspot: 78 MW
- Danger at start
- 39
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 180MW
- 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 38 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,027 ha in 2016, 2,713 ha in 2017, 2,050 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,604 ha that had burned before.
- 1,837 ha Kasunko fire, January 2018 2,092 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,805 ha Kasunko fire, January 2017 3,908 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 908 ha Kasunko fire, February 2017 4,443 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 824 ha Wara Wara Bafod fire, January 2016 3,353 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 213 ha Kasunko fire, January 2018 2,706 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 203 ha Kasunko fire, January 2016 1,697 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Kasunko where it started4,800 ha reached on 21 Jan5.0 %
-
2 ha reached on 22 Jan0.0 %
-
0 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Jan | 35.7 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 22 Jan | 36.9 °C | 13 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 23 Jan | 35.9 °C | 15 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 24 Jan | 35.5 °C | 31 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 25 Jan | 37.1 °C | 18 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 26 Jan | 37.1 °C | 17 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 27 Jan | 37.2 °C | 12 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 28 Jan | 35.6 °C | 14 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 29 Jan | 35.2 °C | 27 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 30 Jan after | 34.4 °C | 28 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 31 Jan after | 36.3 °C | 24 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 1 Feb after | 37.8 °C | 20 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 2 Feb after | 35.4 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 3 Feb after | 35.8 °C | 27 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 4 Feb after | 36.8 °C | 24 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 5 Feb after | 37.2 °C | 26 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 6 Feb after | 36.5 °C | 30 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 7 Feb after | 36.8 °C | 26 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 8 Feb after | 36.3 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
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 · 131Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,058 haKasunko24 January 2026 · 5 days · 4 km away
- 4,443 haKasunko3 February 2017 · 7 days · 8 km away
- 4,232 haTambakha31 January 2017 · 8 days · 10 km away
- 8,119 haTambakha26 January 2016 · 10 days · 19 km away
- 4,462 haTambakha29 January 2016 · 5 days · 19 km away
- 5,742 haTambakha11 February 2019 · 14 days · 23 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kasunko fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 January 2019 and 29 January 2019: 9 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 4,768 hectares (47.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Kasunko (4,800 ha, 5.0 %); Tambakha (2 ha, 0.0 %); Wara Wara Bafod (0 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 27 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 Sierra Leone (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 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). 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.