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Kollet fire, April 2019 Sogolon, Kollet

Out · last detection 19 Apr 2019, 13:58 UTC

The fire started on 10 April 2019 in Kollet, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,618 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 75th largest in Kindia since 2016 (of 242 with a page). Number 27 in Guinea in 2019, of 123.

Burnt area
3,618ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
10 Apr 2019 – 18 Apr 2019
Municipalities hit
2
sub-prefectures
Started on
10 Apr
2019
Heat detections
138
in a single hotspot: 202 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Apr 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Apr18 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

101113141516171819

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

39°high
41km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

42% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 597 ha in 2017, 1,010 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,510 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Sogolon
    2,488 ha reached on 10 Apr
    4.2 %
  2. Kollet where it started
    1,153 ha reached on 7 Apr
    2.3 %

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)
10 Apr 37.6 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Apr 39.4 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
12 Apr 37.6 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
13 Apr 37.7 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Apr 38.5 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Apr 37.8 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Apr 38.6 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Apr 36.4 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Apr 38.7 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Apr after 36.5 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Apr after 36.0 °C 40 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Apr after 35.8 °C 39 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Apr after 37.1 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Apr after 38.1 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Apr after 37.7 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Apr after 38.4 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Apr after 37.9 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Apr after 35.4 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Apr after 36.6 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 3 Apr 2019
After · 25 Apr 2019

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 · 138Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Guinea ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kollet fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 April 2019 and 18 April 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 3,618 hectares (36.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sogolon (2,488 ha, 4.2 %); Kollet (1,153 ha, 2.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.4 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.

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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.