Soromaya fire, February 2017 Soromaya
The fire started on 2 February 2017 in Soromaya, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,444 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 102th largest in Kankan since 2016 (of 388 with a page). Number 49 in Guinea in 2017, of 172.
- Burnt area
- 3,444ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 2 Feb 2017 – 6 Feb 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 2 Feb
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 105
- in a single hotspot: 53 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 913MW
- 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 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.6 mm on 12 Feb.
This area had burned before
17% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 574 ha in 2016.
What happened to each town
-
Soromaya where it started3,467 ha reached on 26 Jan2.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Feb | 33.8 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 36 |
| 3 Feb | 34.5 °C | 12 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 4 Feb | 35.2 °C | 10 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 5 Feb | 35.1 °C | 10 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 6 Feb | 35.0 °C | 11 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 7 Feb after | 35.7 °C | 10 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 8 Feb after | 35.7 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 9 Feb after | 36.3 °C | 11 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 10 Feb after | 34.5 °C | 24 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 11 Feb after | 36.1 °C | 28 % | 31 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 38 |
| 12 Feb after | 35.4 °C | 32 % | 27 km/h | 3.6 mm | Moderate 13 |
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 · 105Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 26,689 haManfran5 February 2019 · 11 days · 14 km away
- 18,717 haFirawaFebruary 2026 · 12 days · 16 km away
- 11,561 haFirawaJanuary 2020 · 10 days · 21 km away
- 40,177 haManfranJanuary 2022 · 30 days · 26 km away
- 25,026 haFirawaJanuary 2016 · 13 days · 29 km away
- 26,206 haManfran23 January 2021 · 9 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Soromaya fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 February 2017 and 6 February 2017: 5 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 3,444 hectares (34.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Soromaya (3,467 ha, 2.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 37 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.