Matéri fire, 18 November 2017 Matéri, Tanguiéta
The fire started on 18 November 2017 in Matéri, Benin, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,102 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 463th largest in Atakora since 2016 (of 523 with a page). Number 134 in Benin in 2017, of 152.
The power measured by the satellite is low (14.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 1,102ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 18 Nov 2017 – 24 Nov 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- communes
- Started on
- 18 Nov
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 20
- in a single hotspot: 15 MW
- Energy released
- 144MW
- 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
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Matéri where it started623 ha reached on 18 Nov0.4 %
-
486 ha reached on 19 Nov0.1 %
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.
Detections table · 20Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 42,755 haTanguiéta22 November 2022 · 36 days · 12 km away
- 18,091 haTanguiéta2 December 2021 · 27 days · 17 km away
- 61,374 haTanguiéta18 December 2023 · 34 days · 20 km away
- 34,318 haTanguiéta13 December 2020 · 19 days · 20 km away
- 36,910 haTanguiéta27 November 2019 · 12 days · 38 km away
- 25,995 haTanguiéta29 December 2022 · 19 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Matéri fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 18 November 2017 to 24 November 2017 (7 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 November 2017 to 22 November 2017.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,102 hectares (11.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Matéri (623 ha, 0.4 %); Tanguiéta (486 ha, 0.1 %).
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Benin (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 ADM2 (Public Domain). 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.