Skip to content
worldfires
en
CF · Central African Republic · →

Vassako fire, 25 December 2022 Vassako

Out · last detection 29 Jan 2023, 12:23 UTC

The fire started on 25 December 2022 in Vassako, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 36 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 95,872 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 2th largest in Bamingui-Bangoran since 2016 (of 223 with a page). Number 4 in Central African Republic in 2022, of 97.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Vassako · 2024Vassako · 2021Vassako · 2024Vassako · 2025

Burnt area
95,872ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
36days
25 Dec 2022 – 29 Jan 2023
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
25 Dec
2022
Heat detections
4,183
in a single hotspot: 288 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
895MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Dec29 Jan
29 Jan 2023

How it evolved, day by day

25 Dec 2022 · 384 MW · 43 26 Dec 2022 · 451 MW · 67 27 Dec 2022 · 60 MW · 22 28 Dec 2022 · 194 MW · 29 29 Dec 2022 · 128 MW · 26 30 Dec 2022 · 899 MW · 79 31 Dec 2022 · 160 MW · 17 1 Jan 2023 · 709 MW · 51 2 Jan 2023 · 472 MW · 68 3 Jan 2023 · 645 MW · 62 4 Jan 2023 · 423 MW · 83 5 Jan 2023 · 226 MW · 43 6 Jan 2023 · 858 MW · 163 7 Jan 2023 · 1,235 MW · 220 8 Jan 2023 · 150 MW · 18 9 Jan 2023 · 1,053 MW · 154 10 Jan 2023 · 2,050 MW · 222 11 Jan 2023 · 3,825 MW · 833 12 Jan 2023 · 1,469 MW · 319 13 Jan 2023 · 2,967 MW · 279 14 Jan 2023 · 2,156 MW · 223 15 Jan 2023 · 3,634 MW · 229 16 Jan 2023 · 1,373 MW · 204 17 Jan 2023 · 401 MW · 92 18 Jan 2023 · 878 MW · 65 19 Jan 2023 · 843 MW · 84 20 Jan 2023 · 739 MW · 114 21 Jan 2023 · 168 MW · 38 22 Jan 2023 · 149 MW · 89 23 Jan 2023 · 7 MW · 7 24 Jan 2023 · 977 MW · 60 25 Jan 2023 · 286 MW · 41 26 Jan 2023 · 90 MW · 20 27 Jan 2023 · 658 MW · 38 28 Jan 2023 · 86 MW · 22 29 Jan 2023 · 1,420 MW · 59
25 Dec 31 Dec 6 Jan 11 Jan 12 Jan 18 Jan 24 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

38°high
33km/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

69% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 44,912 ha in 2016, 21,259 ha in 2017, 10,965 ha in 2018, 19,436 ha in 2019, 16,465 ha in 2020, 37,560 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 65,943 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 61% of the area of London (959 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. Vassako where it started
    96,495 ha reached on 25 Dec
    4.4 %

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 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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.

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)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
28 Dec 34.6 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Dec 34.8 °C 14 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
30 Dec 35.0 °C 17 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Dec 35.8 °C 19 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Jan 35.5 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Jan 36.2 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Jan 36.5 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Jan 36.9 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Jan 38.1 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
6 Jan 38.0 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
7 Jan 37.7 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Jan 37.5 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
9 Jan 37.1 °C 10 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Jan 36.3 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Jan 34.8 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Jan 35.1 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Jan 35.1 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
14 Jan 36.0 °C 14 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Jan 36.1 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
16 Jan 36.9 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 Jan 37.3 °C 13 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
18 Jan 36.9 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Jan 37.4 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Jan 38.2 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
21 Jan 37.5 °C 11 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Jan 37.6 °C 12 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Jan 37.8 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Jan 38.9 °C 9 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
25 Jan 37.6 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
26 Jan 38.5 °C 18 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
27 Jan 39.4 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
28 Jan 37.7 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Jan 37.6 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
30 Jan after 38.5 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
31 Jan after 38.5 °C 17 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
1 Feb after 39.2 °C 15 % 26 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.

Before · 18 Dec 2022
After · 5 Feb 2023

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 12 January 2023 the air beside the fire reached 286 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 159: 11 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak286 µg/m³
Days over the guideline31 days
PM10419 µg/m³
Optical depth2.07
26272829303112345678910111213141516171819202122232425
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 · 4,183Every 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 Central African Republic ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Vassako fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 25 December 2022 to 29 January 2023 (36 days). The perimeter dates it from 28 December 2022 to 22 January 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 95,872 hectares (958.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Vassako (96,495 ha, 4.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 33 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 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

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 28 December 2022 to 22 January 2023. 4,183 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 2020, 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.