Sangarédi fire, May 2025 Sangarédi, Wendou Mbour
The fire started on 12 May 2025 in Sangarédi, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,766 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 98th largest in Boké since 2016 (of 237 with a page). Number 25 in Guinea in 2025, of 70.
- Burnt area
- 2,766ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 12 May 2025 – 17 May 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 12 May
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 70
- in a single hotspot: 263 MW
- Danger at start
- 27
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.5GW
- 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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 20 May.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 642 ha in 2016, 327 ha in 2017, 1,453 ha in 2018, 1,435 ha in 2019, 1,039 ha in 2020, 353 ha in 2022, 439 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,720 ha that had burned before.
- 1,435 ha Sangarédi fire, May 2019 2,067 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 925 ha Sangarédi fire, May 2018 2,171 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 491 ha Wendou Mbour fire, April 2016 18,136 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 383 ha Wendou Mbour fire, May 2018 3,468 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Sangarédi where it started2,545 ha reached on 12 May2.0 %
-
240 ha reached on 12 May0.2 %
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 May | 36.6 °C | 45 % | 31 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 27 |
| 13 May | 36.8 °C | 40 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 14 May | 36.6 °C | 42 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 15 May | 36.7 °C | 45 % | 29 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 28 |
| 16 May | 34.8 °C | 51 % | 37 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 17 May | 37.3 °C | 31 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 18 May after | 35.0 °C | 43 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 19 May after | 37.9 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 20 May after | 36.7 °C | 45 % | 27 km/h | 2.4 mm | Moderate 14 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 15 May 2025 the air beside the fire reached 139 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 68: 4.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 70Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sangarédi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 May 2025 and 17 May 2025: 6 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 2,766 hectares (27.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sangarédi (2,545 ha, 2.0 %); Wendou Mbour (240 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, class 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.
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 (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.