Skip to content
worldfires
BF · Burkina Faso · →

Rollo fire, January 2026 Rollo, Ouindigui

Out · last detection 30 Jan 2026, 13:02 UTC

The fire started on 27 January 2026 in Rollo, Burkina Faso, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,737 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 23th largest in Koulsé since 2016 (of 235 with a page). Number 17 in Burkina Faso in 2026, of 183.

Burnt area
4,737ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
27 Jan 2026 – 30 Jan 2026
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
27 Jan
2026
Heat detections
108
in a single hotspot: 40 MW
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
841MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Jan 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Jan30 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

27282930

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
36km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

6% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 19 ha in 2024, 259 ha in 2025.

What happened to each town

  1. Rollo where it started
    4,351 ha reached on 27 Jan
    7.6 %
  2. Ouindigui
    419 ha reached on 30 Jan
    0.7 %

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 33.4 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
28 Jan 33.3 °C 7 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
29 Jan 33.9 °C 6 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
30 Jan 35.4 °C 7 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
31 Jan after 36.0 °C 6 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
1 Feb after 36.8 °C 7 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
2 Feb after 37.3 °C 8 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 Feb after 36.4 °C 10 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Feb after 36.2 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
5 Feb after 36.0 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
6 Feb after 36.5 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
7 Feb after 36.7 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
8 Feb after 37.5 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
9 Feb after 36.7 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Jan 2026
After · 6 Feb 2026

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 26 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 89 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 63: 4.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak89 µg/m³
Days over the guideline9 days
PM10555 µg/m³
Optical depth0.35
2526272829303112
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 · 108Every 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 27 January 2026 and 30 January 2026: 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 4,737 hectares (47.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Rollo (4,351 ha, 7.6 %); Ouindigui (419 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.4 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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.