Thion fire, December 2024 Zéguédéguen, Thion, Boulsa
The fire started on 18 December 2024 in Thion, Burkina Faso, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,217 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the 8th largest in Sirba since 2016 (of 53 with a page). Number 29 in Burkina Faso in 2024, of 380.
- Burnt area
- 4,217ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 18 Dec 2024 – 20 Dec 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- communes
- Started on
- 18 Dec
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 100
- in a single hotspot: 45 MW
- Danger at start
- 56
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 453MW
- 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 55 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
3,488 ha reached on 19 Dec8.7 %
-
Thion where it started567 ha reached on 18 Dec1.8 %
-
166 ha reached on 19 Dec0.2 %
-
21 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Dec | 30.7 °C | 13 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 19 Dec | 28.1 °C | 18 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 20 Dec | 28.1 °C | 17 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 21 Dec after | 29.0 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 22 Dec after | 30.0 °C | 17 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 23 Dec after | 31.2 °C | 16 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 24 Dec after | 31.8 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 25 Dec after | 32.2 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 26 Dec after | 32.9 °C | 12 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 27 Dec after | 32.8 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 28 Dec after | 33.1 °C | 10 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 29 Dec after | 33.0 °C | 10 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 30 Dec after | 33.2 °C | 13 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
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 20 December 2024 the air beside the fire reached 174 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 121: 8.1 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 · 100Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 14,964 haZéguédéguenNovember 2025 · 12 days · 12 km away
- 10,558 haBoala31 October 2025 · 5 days · 24 km away
- 6,925 haThionNovember 2025 · 3 days · 30 km away
- 9,611 haBogandé3 December 2025 · 7 days · 34 km away
- 6,436 haBogandé18 January 2025 · 4 days · 35 km away
- 8,569 haBogandé26 November 2024 · 10 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Thion fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 December 2024 and 20 December 2024: 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 4,217 hectares (42.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Zéguédéguen (3,488 ha, 8.7 %); Thion (567 ha, 1.8 %); Boulsa (166 ha, 0.2 %); Bogandé (21 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.7 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Burkina Faso (OCHA COD-AB). 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 OCHA COD-AB (Institut Geographique Burkina (IGB)) (Creative Commons Attribution for Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY-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.