Manfran fire, 27 January 2025 Manfran
The fire started on 27 January 2025 in Manfran, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,698 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 31th largest in Faranah since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 4 in Guinea in 2025, of 70.
- Burnt area
- 5,698ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 27 Jan 2025 – 1 Feb 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 27 Jan
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 213
- in a single hotspot: 91 MW
- Danger at start
- 47
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.4GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,430 ha in 2016, 3,435 ha in 2017, 2,345 ha in 2018, 3,094 ha in 2019, 2,753 ha in 2020, 2,098 ha in 2021, 2,854 ha in 2022, 903 ha in 2023, 1,962 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,574 ha that had burned before.
- 3,435 ha Manfran fire, January 2017 70,029 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,802 ha Manfran fire, January 2022 40,177 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,442 ha Manfran fire, January 2020 2,731 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,427 ha Firawa fire, January 2016 25,026 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,315 ha Manfran fire, January 2018 2,507 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,303 ha Manfran fire, February 2016 4,050 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,205 ha Manfran fire, January 2024 6,091 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,147 ha Manfran fire, January 2021 2,392 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Manfran where it started5,734 ha reached on 23 Jan6.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Jan | 36.2 °C | 12 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 28 Jan | 36.3 °C | 13 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 29 Jan | 35.5 °C | 9 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 30 Jan | 36.0 °C | 10 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 31 Jan | 35.6 °C | 9 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 1 Feb | 34.0 °C | 10 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 2 Feb after | 32.6 °C | 11 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 3 Feb after | 32.1 °C | 13 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 4 Feb after | 35.4 °C | 12 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 5 Feb after | 34.7 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 6 Feb after | 34.7 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 7 Feb after | 35.6 °C | 13 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 8 Feb after | 36.2 °C | 13 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 9 Feb after | 37.4 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 10 Feb after | 37.4 °C | 16 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 11 Feb after | 37.9 °C | 13 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
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 30 January 2025 the air beside the fire reached 72 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 55: 3.6 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 · 213Every 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 · 6 km away
- 26,689 haManfran5 February 2019 · 11 days · 12 km away
- 26,206 haManfran23 January 2021 · 9 days · 12 km away
- 25,026 haFirawaJanuary 2016 · 13 days · 14 km away
- 19,542 haManfran24 January 2020 · 16 days · 20 km away
- 72,176 haAlbadariah7 January 2026 · 48 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Manfran fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 January 2025 and 1 February 2025: 6 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 5,698 hectares (57.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Manfran (5,734 ha, 6.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.