Malapouya fire, May 2026 Malapouya, Kolia
The fire started on 12 May 2026 in Malapouya, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,498 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 134th largest in Boké since 2016 (of 237 with a page). Number 171 in Guinea in 2026, of 269.
- Burnt area
- 2,498ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 12 May 2026 – 21 May 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 12 May
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 84
- in a single hotspot: 67 MW
- Energy released
- 2.0GW
- 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
53% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,011 ha in 2017, 773 ha in 2018, 128 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,324 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Malapouya where it started2,416 ha reached on 18 May4.2 %
-
96 ha reached on 12 May0.1 %
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 16 May 2026 the air beside the fire reached 118 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 88: 5.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 84Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Malapouya fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 12 May 2026 to 21 May 2026 (10 days). The perimeter dates it from 14 May 2026 to 21 May 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,498 hectares (25.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Malapouya (2,416 ha, 4.2 %); Kolia (96 ha, 0.1 %).
- 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.
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.