Manfran fire, 23 January 2021 Manfran, Tokounou
The fire started on 23 January 2021 in Manfran, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 26,206 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 5th largest in Faranah since 2016 (of 208 with a page). The largest in Guinea in 2021, of 111.
- Burnt area
- 26,206ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 23 Jan 2021 – 31 Jan 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 23 Jan
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 969
- in a single hotspot: 198 MW
- Danger at start
- 44
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 10.1GW
- 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 37 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 14,505 ha in 2016, 16,321 ha in 2017, 4,278 ha in 2018, 14,943 ha in 2019, 15,120 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 25,181 ha that had burned before.
- 13,801 ha Manfran fire, January 2017 70,029 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 11,043 ha Manfran fire, January 2020 19,542 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 10,231 ha Manfran fire, February 2019 26,689 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,923 ha Manfran fire, January 2016 7,141 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,928 ha Tokounou fire, January 2016 9,728 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,441 ha Firawa fire, January 2016 25,026 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,352 ha Tokounou fire, January 2018 12,627 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,669 ha Tokounou fire, January 2019 2,199 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Manfran where it started19,198 ha reached on 17 Jan22 %
-
7,175 ha reached on 17 Jan6.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Jan | 34.6 °C | 12 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 24 Jan | 35.0 °C | 12 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 25 Jan | 36.2 °C | 11 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 26 Jan | 36.2 °C | 11 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 27 Jan | 36.9 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 28 Jan | 36.5 °C | 13 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 29 Jan | 35.3 °C | 23 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 30 Jan | 36.3 °C | 13 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 31 Jan | 36.0 °C | 13 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 1 Feb after | 36.3 °C | 9 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 2 Feb after | 35.4 °C | 21 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 3 Feb after | 36.2 °C | 22 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 4 Feb after | 36.3 °C | 21 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 5 Feb after | 37.8 °C | 16 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 6 Feb after | 34.9 °C | 23 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 7 Feb after | 35.8 °C | 18 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 8 Feb after | 35.8 °C | 16 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 9 Feb after | 37.1 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 10 Feb after | 37.4 °C | 14 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
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 · 969Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 40,177 haManfranJanuary 2022 · 30 days · 9 km away
- 19,542 haManfran24 January 2020 · 16 days · 11 km away
- 25,026 haFirawaJanuary 2016 · 13 days · 13 km away
- 72,176 haAlbadariah7 January 2026 · 48 days · 20 km away
- 70,029 haManfranJanuary 2017 · 16 days · 22 km away
- 26,689 haManfran5 February 2019 · 11 days · 22 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Manfran fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 January 2021 and 31 January 2021: 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 26,206 hectares (262.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Manfran (19,198 ha, 22 %); Tokounou (7,175 ha, 6.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 30 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.
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.