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Sagalé fire, April 2017 Parawol, Hérico, Ninguélandé

Out · last detection 19 Apr 2017, 13:45 UTC

The fire started on 12 April 2017 in Sagalé, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,111 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 9th largest in Labé since 2016 (of 58 with a page). Number 68 in Guinea in 2017, of 172.

Burnt area
3,111ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
12 Apr 2017 – 18 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit
4
sub-prefectures
Started on
12 Apr
2017
Heat detections
108
in a single hotspot: 68 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
768MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Apr 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Apr18 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

13141516171819

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
36km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

24% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 754 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Parawol
    3,008 ha reached on 13 Apr
    11 %
  2. Hérico
    114 ha
    0.3 %
  3. Ninguélandé
    6 ha reached on 19 Apr
    0.0 %
  4. Sagalé where it started
    2 ha reached on 10 Apr
    0.0 %

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)
12 Apr 34.6 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Apr 36.1 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Apr 36.0 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Apr 35.3 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
16 Apr 35.9 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Apr 35.8 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
18 Apr 37.0 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Apr after 36.5 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Apr after 34.7 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 Apr after 35.0 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Apr after 34.8 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Apr after 34.4 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Apr after 35.1 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Apr after 35.7 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
26 Apr after 36.9 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Apr after 35.0 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Apr after 33.7 °C 38 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Apr 2017
After · 25 Apr 2017

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 · 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 Guinea ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Sagalé fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 April 2017 and 18 April 2017: 7 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 3,111 hectares (31.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Parawol (3,008 ha, 11 %); Hérico (114 ha, 0.3 %); Ninguélandé (6 ha, 0.0 %); Sagalé (2 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Guinea (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.

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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 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 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.