Poli fire, 27 November 2017 Poli
The fire started on 27 November 2017 in Poli, Cameroon, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,855 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 156th largest in North since 2016 (of 1648 with a page). Number 24 in Cameroon in 2017, of 294.
- Burnt area
- 2,855ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 27 Nov 2017 – 30 Nov 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 27 Nov
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 63
- in a single hotspot: 68 MW
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 777MW
- 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 44 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
29% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 825 ha in 2016.
- 651 ha Poli fire, December 2016 1,237 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 123 ha Poli fire, December 2016 2,080 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 50 ha Poli fire, December 2016 1,171 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Poli where it started2,873 ha reached on 28 Nov0.3 %
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 Nov | 33.7 °C | 19 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 28 Nov | 34.6 °C | 18 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 29 Nov | 34.8 °C | 18 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 30 Nov | 35.7 °C | 16 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 1 Dec after | 34.6 °C | 20 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 2 Dec after | 35.1 °C | 19 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 3 Dec after | 35.4 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 4 Dec after | 35.9 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 5 Dec after | 35.8 °C | 15 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 6 Dec after | 35.7 °C | 16 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 7 Dec after | 33.9 °C | 21 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 8 Dec after | 32.8 °C | 23 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 9 Dec after | 33.2 °C | 23 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 10 Dec after | 33.2 °C | 23 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
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 · 63Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 4,549 haPoli23 December 2019 · 8 days · 10 km away
- 52,850 haPoli22 November 2025 · 31 days · 16 km away
- 14,629 haPoli2 December 2023 · 18 days · 23 km away
- 7,375 haPoli30 November 2025 · 10 days · 24 km away
- 5,161 haPoli3 December 2025 · 15 days · 32 km away
- 27,826 haPoli23 November 2025 · 26 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Poli fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 November 2017 and 30 November 2017: 4 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 2,855 hectares (28.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Poli (2,873 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very high.
- 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
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 (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.