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GN · Guinea · –

Tokounou fire, January 2025 Tokounou, Douako, Albadariah

Out · last detection 30 Jan 2025, 13:40 UTC

The fire started on 13 January 2025 in Tokounou, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,691 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 70th largest in Kankan since 2016 (of 308 with a page). Number 6 in Guinea in 2025, of 53.

Burnt area
3,691ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
18days
13 Jan 2025 – 30 Jan 2025
Municipalities hit
3
sub-prefectures
Started on
13 Jan
2025
Heat detections
96
in a single hotspot: 45 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
104MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Jan30 Jan
30 Jan 2025

How it evolved, day by day

16 Jan 2025 · 2 MW · 1 19 Jan 2025 · 16 MW · 2 20 Jan 2025 · 84 MW · 9 21 Jan 2025 · 529 MW · 35 22 Jan 2025 · 25 MW · 8 23 Jan 2025 · 127 MW · 11 24 Jan 2025 · 65 MW · 9 26 Jan 2025 · 5 MW · 2 27 Jan 2025 · 229 MW · 14 28 Jan 2025 · 42 MW · 4 30 Jan 2025 · 25 MW · 1
16 Jan 21 Jan 24 Jan 28 Jan

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

37°high
37km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 400 ha in 2016, 477 ha in 2017, 1,025 ha in 2018, 2,012 ha in 2019, 864 ha in 2020, 1,560 ha in 2021, 1,715 ha in 2022, 1,519 ha in 2023, 1,313 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,431 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.3% of the area of London (37 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Tokounou where it started
    2,269 ha reached on 16 Jan
    2.0 %
  2. 1,020 ha reached on 19 Jan
    0.4 %
  3. 425 ha reached on 21 Jan
    0.6 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area0.77 ha
Residents≈ 400

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.77 hectares of built-up land and about 400 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)

Started with 60 days without rain: 34 % of the area in Guinea

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
13 Jan 35.0 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Jan 35.3 °C 18 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Jan 36.4 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Jan 34.6 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Jan 31.7 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 49
18 Jan 28.0 °C 21 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Jan 35.0 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Jan 33.9 °C 11 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Jan 34.9 °C 12 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Jan 35.3 °C 20 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Jan 36.8 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Jan 36.6 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Jan 34.8 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Jan 37.1 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Jan 36.6 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Jan 36.8 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
29 Jan 35.9 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 Jan 36.3 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
31 Jan after 36.0 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 Feb after 34.7 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
2 Feb after 32.8 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
3 Feb after 32.4 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Feb after 35.5 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
5 Feb after 34.5 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Feb after 35.2 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Feb after 36.2 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Feb after 36.7 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Feb after 37.9 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 44.5, a minimum humidity of 15% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 40.

FWI at the start 44.5
Minimum humidity 15 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Mamouroudou fire, February 2019
7,961 ha 11 days FWI 45.5 Min. humidity 15 % 61 km away, in 2019

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

10 days
median duration
2,615 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
1.8 mm
rain at the end (median; 15 of 40 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (3,691 ha against a median of 2,615 ha) and lasted 18 days, against 10 days.

In 25 of 40, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.8 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
37km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 30 Jan, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 15 of 40, with a median of 1.8 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 6 Jan 2025
After · 6 Feb 2025

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 · Copernicus

On 25 January 2025 the air beside the fire reached 102 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 62: 4.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak102 µg/m³
Days over the guideline10 days
PM10182 µg/m³
Optical depth0.68
18 Jan20 Jan22 Jan24 Jan26 Jan
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 96Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Guinea

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Tokounou fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 13 January 2025 to 30 January 2025 (18 days). The perimeter dates it from 20 January 2025 to 24 January 2025.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,691 hectares (36.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Tokounou (2,269 ha, 2.0 %); Douako (1,020 ha, 0.4 %); Albadariah (425 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.
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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 40. Their median duration was 10 days and their median area 2,615 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 25 of 40, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.8 mm.

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

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 24 January 2025 → 30 January 2025.
  2. Start date: 20 January 2025 → 13 January 2025.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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.

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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 20 January 2025 to 24 January 2025. 96 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.