Simbaru fire, 14 April 2022 Simbaru, Wandor
The fire started on 14 April 2022 in Simbaru, Sierra Leone, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,258 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 16th largest in Eastern since 2016 (of 263 with a page). Number 15 in Sierra Leone in 2022, of 167.
- Burnt area
- 3,258ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 14 Apr 2022 – 16 Apr 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- chiefdoms
- Started on
- 14 Apr
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 94
- in a single hotspot: 164 MW
- Danger at start
- 9
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.7GW
- 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 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 18 Apr.
This area had burned before
28% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 426 ha in 2016, 508 ha in 2019.
- 426 ha Simbaru fire, March 2016 1,351 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 308 ha Simbaru fire, April 2019 1,051 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 180 ha Wandor fire, April 2019 1,236 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 20 ha Simbaru fire, April 2019 1,368 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Simbaru where it started2,725 ha reached on 10 Apr10 %
-
554 ha reached on 15 Apr1.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Apr | 33.3 °C | 50 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 15 Apr | 35.0 °C | 44 % | 32 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 16 Apr | 37.0 °C | 31 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 17 Apr after | 36.2 °C | 27 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 18 Apr after | 35.2 °C | 42 % | 31 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 15 |
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.
Detections table · 94Every 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 Simbaru fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 April 2022 and 16 April 2022: 3 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 3,258 hectares (32.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Simbaru (2,725 ha, 10 %); Wandor (554 ha, 1.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Sierra Leone (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 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). 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.