Skip to content
worldfires
GN · Guinea · →

Sangardo fire, January 2017 Sangardo, Albadariah, Douako

Out · last detection 7 Feb 2017, 14:16 UTC

The fire started on 30 January 2017 in Sangardo, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,235 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 16th largest in Faranah since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 5 in Guinea in 2017, of 172.

Burnt area
10,235ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
30 Jan 2017 – 6 Feb 2017
Municipalities hit
3
sub-prefectures
Started on
30 Jan
2017
Heat detections
398
in a single hotspot: 108 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Feb 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Jan6 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

30311234567

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
37km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

18% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,797 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Sangardo where it started
    6,994 ha reached on 29 Jan
    6.1 %
  2. Albadariah
    2,389 ha reached on 29 Jan
    3.4 %
  3. Douako
    919 ha reached on 31 Jan
    0.3 %

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)
30 Jan 36.3 °C 8 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Jan 36.5 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
1 Feb 35.5 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Feb 34.2 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 Feb 34.3 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 Feb 35.1 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 Feb 34.9 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Feb 35.1 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
7 Feb after 35.9 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
8 Feb after 35.7 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
9 Feb after 36.5 °C 6 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Feb after 35.3 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
11 Feb after 36.5 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Feb after 36.9 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 49
13 Feb after 34.4 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
14 Feb after 36.3 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Feb after 37.4 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Feb after 35.5 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Jan 2017
After · 13 Feb 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 · 398Every 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 Sangardo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 January 2017 and 6 February 2017: 8 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 10,235 hectares (102.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Sangardo (6,994 ha, 6.1 %); Albadariah (2,389 ha, 3.4 %); Douako (919 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.
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.

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 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.