Sinta fire, April 2026 Sinta, Sogolon
The fire started on 18 April 2026 in Sinta, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,346 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 41th largest in Kindia since 2016 (of 242 with a page). Number 35 in Guinea in 2026, of 269.
- Burnt area
- 5,346ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 24days
- 18 Apr 2026 – 11 May 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 18 Apr
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 155
- in a single hotspot: 237 MW
- Danger at start
- 45
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.8GW
- 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 21 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
67% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,297 ha in 2016, 659 ha in 2017, 2,069 ha in 2018, 693 ha in 2020, 1,426 ha in 2022, 86 ha in 2023, 732 ha in 2024, 29 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,578 ha that had burned before.
- 2,018 ha Sinta fire, April 2018 2,013 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 45 ha Sogolon fire, April 2024 2,493 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 16 ha Kollet fire, April 2018 2,844 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Sinta where it started3,253 ha reached on 18 Apr8.6 %
-
2,127 ha reached on 21 Apr3.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Apr | 37.4 °C | 24 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 19 Apr | 36.8 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 20 Apr | 36.6 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 21 Apr | 36.7 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 22 Apr | 37.2 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 23 Apr | 37.3 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 24 Apr | 37.7 °C | 21 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 25 Apr | 37.7 °C | 28 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 26 Apr | 34.7 °C | 35 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 27 Apr | 35.4 °C | 29 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 28 Apr | 36.0 °C | 27 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 29 Apr | 35.3 °C | 26 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 30 Apr | 37.4 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 1 May | 37.5 °C | 26 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 2 May | 36.6 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 3 May | 34.5 °C | 44 % | 29 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 31 |
| 4 May | 36.6 °C | 36 % | 24 km/h | 2.2 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 5 May | 33.4 °C | 44 % | 32 km/h | 1.7 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 6 May | 34.4 °C | 40 % | 26 km/h | 2.3 mm | Low 11 |
| 7 May | 36.4 °C | 32 % | 33 km/h | 1.4 mm | High 26 |
| 8 May | 33.8 °C | 32 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 9 May | 32.1 °C | 37 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 10 May | 34.8 °C | 36 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 11 May | 36.2 °C | 39 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 12 May after | 33.1 °C | 47 % | 22 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 13 May after | 35.5 °C | 43 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 31 |
| 14 May after | 35.2 °C | 44 % | 26 km/h | 0.8 mm | High 24 |
| 15 May after | 35.0 °C | 39 % | 26 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 25 |
| 16 May after | 34.4 °C | 36 % | 24 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 29 |
| 17 May after | 34.5 °C | 42 % | 23 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 28 |
| 18 May after | 36.1 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 19 May after | 35.6 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 20 May after | 36.2 °C | 28 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 21 May after | 34.8 °C | 30 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
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 13 May 2026 the air beside the fire reached 110 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 66: 4.4 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 · 155Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 9,669 haSogolonApril 2026 · 21 days · 12 km away
- 7,244 haKolletApril 2021 · 8 days · 15 km away
- 9,219 haSogolon11 April 2017 · 10 days · 17 km away
- 7,334 haSogolon11 April 2017 · 10 days · 23 km away
- 7,952 haThionthian13 April 2017 · 8 days · 26 km away
- 9,116 haThionthian9 April 2016 · 11 days · 31 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sinta fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 18 April 2026 to 11 May 2026 (24 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 April 2026 to 4 May 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,346 hectares (53.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sinta (3,253 ha, 8.6 %); Sogolon (2,127 ha, 3.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.