Manfran fire, January 2017 Manfran, Albadariah, Firawa
The fire started on 26 January 2017 in Manfran, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 70,029 hectares from heat detections, spread across 8 municipalities.
It is the 2th largest in Faranah since 2016 (of 208 with a page). The largest in Guinea in 2017, of 172.
- Burnt area
- 70,029ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 16days
- 26 Jan 2017 – 10 Feb 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 8
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 26 Jan
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 2,918
- in a single hotspot: 145 MW
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 30.9GW
- 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 47 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.7 mm on 13 Feb.
This area had burned before
45% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 31,826 ha in 2016.
- 13,251 ha Firawa fire, January 2016 25,026 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,899 ha Manfran fire, January 2016 7,141 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,456 ha Albadariah fire, January 2016 14,222 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,816 ha Albadariah fire, January 2016 2,937 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 772 ha Tokounou fire, January 2016 9,728 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 217 ha Manfran fire, February 2016 4,050 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Manfran where it started36,936 ha reached on 22 Jan42 %
-
24,803 ha reached on 22 Jan35 %
-
6,893 ha reached on 25 Jan19 %
-
1,019 ha reached on 27 Jan0.6 %
-
456 ha reached on 24 Jan0.2 %
-
279 ha reached on 21 Jan0.2 %
-
52 ha reached on 26 Jan0.0 %
-
35 ha reached on 3 Feb0.1 %
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Jan | 34.8 °C | 22 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 27 Jan | 36.1 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 28 Jan | 36.0 °C | 10 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 29 Jan | 36.0 °C | 10 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 30 Jan | 36.6 °C | 9 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 31 Jan | 36.8 °C | 20 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 1 Feb | 35.8 °C | 21 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 2 Feb | 34.4 °C | 14 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 46 |
| 3 Feb | 34.7 °C | 11 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 4 Feb | 35.6 °C | 10 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 5 Feb | 35.4 °C | 9 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 6 Feb | 35.5 °C | 10 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 7 Feb | 36.3 °C | 9 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 8 Feb | 36.2 °C | 10 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 9 Feb | 36.9 °C | 7 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 10 Feb | 35.6 °C | 17 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 11 Feb after | 36.9 °C | 22 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 12 Feb after | 37.1 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 45 |
| 13 Feb after | 33.8 °C | 36 % | 31 km/h | 2.7 mm | Moderate 13 |
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 · 2,918Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 72,176 haAlbadariah7 January 2026 · 48 days · 7 km away
- 19,542 haManfran24 January 2020 · 16 days · 16 km away
- 26,206 haManfran23 January 2021 · 9 days · 22 km away
- 22,404 haDouako18 January 2018 · 11 days · 25 km away
- 25,026 haFirawaJanuary 2016 · 13 days · 26 km away
- 40,177 haManfranJanuary 2022 · 30 days · 28 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Manfran fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 January 2017 and 10 February 2017: 16 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 70,029 hectares (700.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 8 municipalities: Manfran (36,936 ha, 42 %); Albadariah (24,803 ha, 35 %); Firawa (6,893 ha, 19 %); Soromaya (1,019 ha, 0.6 %); Douako (456 ha, 0.2 %); Tokounou (279 ha, 0.2 %); Sangardo (52 ha, 0.0 %); Banama (35 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, class Extreme.
- 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.