Kaya fire, October 2018 Fouli, Kaya
The fire started on 14 October 2018 in Kaya, Chad, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 23,249 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 3th largest in Lac since 2016 (of 44 with a page). The largest in Chad in 2018, of 78.
- Burnt area
- 23,249ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 24days
- 14 Oct 2018 – 6 Nov 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- departments
- Started on
- 14 Oct
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 1,001
- in a single hotspot: 162 MW
- Danger at start
- 57
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 14.8GW
- 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 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 17,001 ha in 2016, 11,822 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 19,017 ha that had burned before.
- 17,001 ha Kaya fire, September 2016 57,635 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,846 ha Fouli fire, October 2017 4,876 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,617 ha Fouli fire, October 2017 42,926 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,541 ha Fouli fire, October 2017 2,706 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 802 ha Kaya fire, October 2017 5,500 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 702 ha Kaya fire, October 2017 2,095 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
14,765 ha reached on 9 Oct1.9 %
-
Kaya where it started8,604 ha reached on 8 Oct2.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Oct | 40.1 °C | 15 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 15 Oct | 39.2 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 16 Oct | 41.6 °C | 11 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 17 Oct | 41.1 °C | 8 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 18 Oct | 40.3 °C | 5 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 19 Oct | 40.2 °C | 4 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 78 |
| 20 Oct | 39.9 °C | 6 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
| 21 Oct | 41.1 °C | 6 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 22 Oct | 41.4 °C | 4 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 23 Oct | 41.3 °C | 4 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 80 |
| 24 Oct | 41.2 °C | 7 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 25 Oct | 38.8 °C | 28 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 26 Oct | 39.6 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 1.6 mm | Very high 39 |
| 27 Oct | 38.9 °C | 16 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 28 Oct | 41.2 °C | 17 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 29 Oct | 38.9 °C | 10 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 30 Oct | 39.1 °C | 7 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 88 |
| 31 Oct | 38.2 °C | 4 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 84 |
| 1 Nov | 39.6 °C | 5 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 74 |
| 2 Nov | 39.7 °C | 6 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
| 3 Nov | 39.0 °C | 10 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 4 Nov | 39.8 °C | 10 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 5 Nov | 38.5 °C | 10 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 6 Nov | 39.4 °C | 8 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 75 |
| 7 Nov after | 38.4 °C | 9 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 8 Nov after | 37.4 °C | 9 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 82 |
| 9 Nov after | 36.8 °C | 8 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 89 |
| 10 Nov after | 37.3 °C | 8 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 11 Nov after | 37.9 °C | 6 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 12 Nov after | 37.0 °C | 8 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 76 |
| 13 Nov after | 36.5 °C | 9 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 75 |
| 14 Nov after | 35.5 °C | 11 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 77 |
| 15 Nov after | 35.5 °C | 12 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 16 Nov after | 35.2 °C | 17 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
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 · 1,001Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 57,635 haKaya27 September 2016 · 38 days · 8 km away
- 42,926 haFouli2 October 2017 · 16 days · 12 km away
- 32,284 haKukawa12 October 2018 · 14 days · 16 km away
- 27,753 haAbadam28 October 2019 · 10 days · 19 km away
- 39,930 haAbadamOctober 2017 · 30 days · 21 km away
- 43,877 haAbadam8 October 2021 · 36 days · 24 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kaya fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 October 2018 and 6 November 2018: 24 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 23,249 hectares (232.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Fouli (14,765 ha, 1.9 %); Kaya (8,604 ha, 2.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 41.6 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 88, class Very extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Chad (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 (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.