Sangarédi fire, April 2026 Wendou Mbour, Sangarédi, Missira
The fire started on 22 April 2026 in Sangarédi, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,909 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 23th largest in Boké since 2016 (of 237 with a page). Number 41 in Guinea in 2026, of 269.
- Burnt area
- 4,909ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 16days
- 22 Apr 2026 – 7 May 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 22 Apr
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 135
- in a single hotspot: 311 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 5.7GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.4 mm on 14 May.
This area had burned before
82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,708 ha in 2016, 431 ha in 2017, 17 ha in 2018, 2,573 ha in 2019, 775 ha in 2020, 687 ha in 2021, 1,291 ha in 2024, 781 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,007 ha that had burned before.
- 1,708 ha Wendou Mbour fire, April 2016 18,136 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,274 ha Wendou Mbour fire, May 2024 2,510 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,154 ha Wendou Mbour fire, May 2019 2,418 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 775 ha Wendou Mbour fire, May 2020 3,599 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 687 ha Wendou Mbour fire, April 2021 3,087 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
4,316 ha reached on 25 Apr2.9 %
-
Sangarédi where it started451 ha reached on 22 Apr0.4 %
-
169 ha reached on 23 Apr0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Apr | 37.6 °C | 29 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 23 Apr | 37.2 °C | 25 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 24 Apr | 37.9 °C | 25 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 25 Apr | 38.3 °C | 29 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 26 Apr | 35.5 °C | 38 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 27 Apr | 36.1 °C | 31 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 28 Apr | 36.3 °C | 31 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 29 Apr | 36.2 °C | 28 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 30 Apr | 38.6 °C | 27 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 1 May | 39.1 °C | 23 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 2 May | 38.5 °C | 31 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 3 May | 35.0 °C | 45 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 4 May | 37.6 °C | 39 % | 28 km/h | 5.5 mm | Low 11 |
| 5 May | 34.9 °C | 46 % | 32 km/h | 4.7 mm | Low 6 |
| 6 May | 35.4 °C | 40 % | 31 km/h | 3.1 mm | Low 8 |
| 7 May | 37.9 °C | 32 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 8 May after | 34.5 °C | 36 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 9 May after | 34.5 °C | 39 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 10 May after | 35.8 °C | 37 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 11 May after | 37.2 °C | 38 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 12 May after | 34.6 °C | 44 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 13 May after | 36.1 °C | 46 % | 39 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 31 |
| 14 May after | 36.3 °C | 46 % | 31 km/h | 3.4 mm | Low 9 |
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 4 May 2026 the air beside the fire reached 72 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 54: 3.6 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 · 135Every 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?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 22 April 2026 to 7 May 2026 (16 days). The perimeter dates it from 25 April 2026 to 2 May 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,909 hectares (49.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Wendou Mbour (4,316 ha, 2.9 %); Sangarédi (451 ha, 0.4 %); Missira (169 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.1 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.
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.