Ngambé-Tikar fire, 6 February 2021 Ngambé-Tikar
The fire started on 6 February 2021 in Ngambé-Tikar, Cameroon, and satellites saw it burning for 34 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 20,590 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 5th largest in Centre since 2016 (of 200 with a page). Number 2 in Cameroon in 2021, of 293.
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- Burnt area
- 20,590ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 34days
- 6 Feb 2021 – 11 Mar 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 6 Feb
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 2,668
- in a single hotspot: 210 MW
- Danger at start
- 44
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 1.1GW
- detected power per day, on average
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. Rain came after the fire: 8.5 mm on 13 Mar.
This area had burned before
74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,891 ha in 2016, 7,160 ha in 2017, 2,075 ha in 2019, 12,859 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 15,171 ha that had burned before.
- 5,648 ha Ngambé-Tikar fire, January 2020 22,996 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,022 ha Ngambé-Tikar fire, February 2020 7,211 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,089 ha Ngambé-Tikar fire, February 2017 5,633 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,891 ha Ngambé-Tikar fire, February 2016 5,314 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,256 ha Ngambé-Tikar fire, February 2020 1,740 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,207 ha Ngambé-Tikar fire, February 2017 1,473 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,073 ha Ngambé-Tikar fire, February 2017 1,200 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,054 ha Ngambé-Tikar fire, February 2019 1,054 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Ngambé-Tikar where it started20,732 ha reached on 6 Feb3.0 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Inside the perimeter there were about 1.1 hectares of built-up land and about 100 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Feb | 35.4 °C | 13 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 7 Feb | 35.6 °C | 16 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 8 Feb | 35.2 °C | 15 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 9 Feb | 35.0 °C | 16 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 10 Feb | 33.8 °C | 16 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 11 Feb | 34.8 °C | 9 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 12 Feb | 35.3 °C | 11 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 13 Feb | 35.9 °C | 13 % | 16 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 14 Feb | 35.6 °C | 11 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 15 Feb | 35.6 °C | 12 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 16 Feb | 36.7 °C | 13 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 17 Feb | 35.8 °C | 10 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 18 Feb | 32.8 °C | 8 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 19 Feb | 33.3 °C | 12 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 20 Feb | 33.5 °C | 22 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 21 Feb | 33.8 °C | 14 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 22 Feb | 34.0 °C | 12 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 23 Feb | 32.4 °C | 20 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 24 Feb | 35.0 °C | 11 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 25 Feb | 35.3 °C | 11 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 26 Feb | 34.8 °C | 14 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 27 Feb | 37.7 °C | 12 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 28 Feb | 37.7 °C | 12 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 1 Mar | 38.1 °C | 11 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 2 Mar | 36.6 °C | 13 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 3 Mar | 37.6 °C | 12 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 4 Mar | 36.8 °C | 12 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 5 Mar | 39.0 °C | 11 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 6 Mar | 37.3 °C | 11 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 7 Mar | 37.8 °C | 12 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 8 Mar | 37.6 °C | 15 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 9 Mar | 37.3 °C | 18 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 10 Mar | 34.5 °C | 28 % | 33 km/h | 12.5 mm | Low 11 |
| 11 Mar | 31.8 °C | 37 % | 23 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 22 |
| 12 Mar after | 33.6 °C | 36 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 13 Mar after | 34.5 °C | 34 % | 26 km/h | 8.5 mm | Low 6 |
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 · 2,668Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 120,811 haNgambé-Tikar7 February 2026 · 45 days · 9 km away
- 22,996 haNgambé-TikarJanuary 2020 · 54 days · 14 km away
- 14,241 haNgambé-Tikar6 February 2017 · 35 days · 20 km away
- 12,315 haNgambé-Tikar3 February 2023 · 22 days · 23 km away
- 36,493 haNgambé-TikarJanuary 2023 · 45 days · 29 km away
- 11,573 haNgambé-Tikar14 February 2022 · 23 days · 30 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ngambé-Tikar fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 6 February 2021 to 11 March 2021 (34 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 February 2021 to 10 March 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 20,590 hectares (205.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ngambé-Tikar (20,732 ha, 3.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.0 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 33 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 Cameroon (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
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 10 March 2021 → 11 March 2021.
- Start date: 13 February 2021 → 6 February 2021.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 13 February 2021 to 10 March 2021. 2,668 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.