Vassako fire, 12 December 2016 Vassako
The fire started on 12 December 2016 in Vassako, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,707 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 100th largest in Bamingui-Bangoran since 2016 (of 223 with a page). Number 85 in Central African Republic in 2016, of 165.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 7,707ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 12 Dec 2016 – 21 Dec 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 12 Dec
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 253
- in a single hotspot: 70 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 238MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 26 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.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Vassako where it started7,767 ha reached on 12 Dec0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Dec | 36.7 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 13 Dec | 37.3 °C | 14 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 14 Dec | 36.6 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 15 Dec | 34.4 °C | 29 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 16 Dec | 35.7 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 17 Dec | 37.2 °C | 15 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 18 Dec | 36.2 °C | 11 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 19 Dec | 36.1 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 20 Dec | 35.6 °C | 13 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 21 Dec | 36.7 °C | 15 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 22 Dec after | 37.5 °C | 13 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 23 Dec after | 38.8 °C | 15 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 24 Dec after | 38.8 °C | 15 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 25 Dec after | 37.0 °C | 15 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 26 Dec after | 36.3 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 27 Dec after | 36.7 °C | 16 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 28 Dec after | 35.9 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 29 Dec after | 36.5 °C | 16 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 30 Dec after | 37.1 °C | 15 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 31 Dec after | 36.6 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
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 · 253Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 53,841 haVassako6 January 2021 · 28 days · 7 km away
- 11,749 haVassako6 December 2016 · 16 days · 9 km away
- 15,742 haVassako18 December 2021 · 9 days · 14 km away
- 19,251 haVassako29 December 2018 · 22 days · 16 km away
- 16,610 haVassako12 December 2016 · 14 days · 25 km away
- 42,287 haVassako19 December 2025 · 43 days · 27 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Vassako fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 12 December 2016 to 21 December 2016 (10 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 December 2016 to 17 December 2016.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,707 hectares (77.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Vassako (7,767 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Central African Republic (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
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 12 December 2016 to 17 December 2016. 253 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.
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.