Skip to content
worldfires
BF · Burkina Faso · →

Rollo fire, 21 November 2025 Rollo, Kongoussi

Out · last detection 25 Nov 2025, 02:29 UTC

The fire started on 21 November 2025 in Rollo, Burkina Faso, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,682 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 10th largest in Koulsé since 2016 (of 235 with a page). Number 26 in Burkina Faso in 2025, of 609.

Burnt area
8,682ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
21 Nov 2025 – 25 Nov 2025
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
21 Nov
2025
Heat detections
158
in a single hotspot: 135 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Nov 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Nov25 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

2122232425

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

38°high
40km/h · peak gust
4%lowest humidity

It had gone 40 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,815 ha in 2024.

What happened to each town

  1. Rollo where it started
    8,325 ha reached on 21 Nov
    15 %
  2. Kongoussi
    408 ha reached on 23 Nov
    0.6 %

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)
21 Nov 37.2 °C 8 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Nov 37.7 °C 4 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
23 Nov 36.6 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
24 Nov 35.8 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
25 Nov 36.9 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
26 Nov after 36.2 °C 13 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
27 Nov after 36.5 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Nov after 36.9 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
29 Nov after 36.8 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
30 Nov after 36.9 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
1 Dec after 35.5 °C 31 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Dec after 33.0 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Dec after 34.1 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
4 Dec after 32.6 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Dec after 34.1 °C 6 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 14 Nov 2025
After · 2 Dec 2025

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 · Copernicus

On 24 November 2025 the air beside the fire reached 50 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 34: 2.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak50 µg/m³
Days over the guideline10 days
PM10229 µg/m³
Optical depth0.44
19202122232425262728
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 158Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Burkina Faso ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Rollo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 November 2025 and 25 November 2025: 5 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 8,682 hectares (86.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Rollo (8,325 ha, 15 %); Kongoussi (408 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Burkina Faso (OCHA COD-AB). 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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 OCHA COD-AB (Institut Geographique Burkina (IGB)) (Creative Commons Attribution for Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY-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.