Vassako fire, 19 December 2025 Vassako
The fire started on 19 December 2025 in Vassako, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 43 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 42,287 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 7th largest in Bamingui-Bangoran since 2016 (of 223 with a page). Number 15 in Central African Republic in 2025, of 145.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 42,287ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 43days
- 19 Dec 2025 – 30 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 19 Dec
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 1,176
- in a single hotspot: 101 MW
- Danger at start
- 47
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 255MW
- 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 53 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 21,374 ha in 2016, 8,933 ha in 2017, 14,330 ha in 2018, 12,983 ha in 2019, 12,965 ha in 2020, 24,169 ha in 2021, 24,783 ha in 2022, 7,053 ha in 2023, 7,906 ha in 2024, 5,517 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 41,532 ha that had burned before.
- 9,367 ha Vassako fire, December 2016 16,610 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8,080 ha Vassako fire, January 2021 53,841 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,753 ha Vassako fire, December 2022 10,699 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,167 ha Vassako fire, January 2019 9,554 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,121 ha Vassako fire, January 2018 7,601 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,075 ha Vassako fire, December 2016 11,749 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,902 ha Vassako fire, December 2021 8,039 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,320 ha Vassako fire, December 2021 15,742 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
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 started42,611 ha reached on 19 Dec1.9 %
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 2025Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (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)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Dec | 35.2 °C | 17 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 20 Dec | 36.7 °C | 17 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 21 Dec | 37.1 °C | 16 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 22 Dec | 36.7 °C | 15 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 23 Dec | 36.6 °C | 14 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 24 Dec | 37.8 °C | 14 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 25 Dec | 37.9 °C | 13 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 26 Dec | 38.5 °C | 13 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 27 Dec | 38.4 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 28 Dec | 37.9 °C | 12 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 29 Dec | 37.3 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 30 Dec | 37.0 °C | 19 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 31 Dec | 37.7 °C | 13 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 1 Jan | 37.8 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 2 Jan | 38.6 °C | 10 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 3 Jan | 38.0 °C | 13 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 4 Jan | 38.5 °C | 10 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 5 Jan | 38.4 °C | 11 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 6 Jan | 38.9 °C | 11 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 7 Jan | 38.6 °C | 12 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 8 Jan | 38.0 °C | 11 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 9 Jan | 38.4 °C | 11 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 10 Jan | 36.6 °C | 16 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 11 Jan | 36.0 °C | 16 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 12 Jan | 36.5 °C | 14 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 13 Jan | 38.2 °C | 13 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 14 Jan | 37.9 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 15 Jan | 36.4 °C | 14 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 16 Jan | 36.3 °C | 13 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 17 Jan | 37.1 °C | 15 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 18 Jan | 38.1 °C | 11 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 19 Jan | 38.2 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 20 Jan | 38.1 °C | 13 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 21 Jan | 38.7 °C | 13 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 22 Jan | 39.3 °C | 15 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 23 Jan | 39.1 °C | 16 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 24 Jan | 39.0 °C | 13 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 25 Jan | 40.0 °C | 16 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 26 Jan | 40.3 °C | 11 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 27 Jan | 40.2 °C | 10 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 28 Jan | 39.6 °C | 13 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 29 Jan | 38.5 °C | 9 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 30 Jan | 39.6 °C | 10 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 31 Jan after | 39.6 °C | 10 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 1 Feb after | 39.0 °C | 12 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 2 Feb after | 39.1 °C | 18 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 3 Feb after | 39.7 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 4 Feb after | 40.6 °C | 7 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 5 Feb after | 40.6 °C | 9 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 6 Feb after | 37.9 °C | 24 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 7 Feb after | 38.8 °C | 19 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 8 Feb after | 40.3 °C | 5 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 9 Feb after | 39.8 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
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 21 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 100 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 59: 4.0 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 · 1,176Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 16,610 haVassako12 December 2016 · 14 days · 3 km away
- 10,959 haVassako7 January 2018 · 9 days · 14 km away
- 19,251 haVassako29 December 2018 · 22 days · 19 km away
- 15,742 haVassako18 December 2021 · 9 days · 21 km away
- 11,749 haVassako6 December 2016 · 16 days · 28 km away
- 53,841 haVassako6 January 2021 · 28 days · 33 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 19 December 2025 to 30 January 2026 (43 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 December 2025 to 23 January 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 42,287 hectares (422.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Vassako (42,611 ha, 1.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.3 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.
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; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 19 December 2025 to 23 January 2026. 1,176 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.
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.