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

Vokouma fire, 22 November 2017 Vokouma

Out · last detection 23 Dec 2017, 11:13 UTC

The fire started on 22 November 2017 in Vokouma, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 32 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 31,782 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 4th largest in Vakaga since 2016 (of 72 with a page). Number 10 in Central African Republic in 2017, of 99.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Vokouma · 2024Vokouma · 2025Vokouma · 2021Vokouma · 2019

Burnt area
31,782ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
32days
22 Nov 2017 – 23 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
22 Nov
2017
Heat detections
1,162
in a single hotspot: 212 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Average daily power
317MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Nov23 Dec
23 Dec 2017

How it evolved, day by day

22 Nov 2017 · 18 MW · 7 23 Nov 2017 · 10 MW · 1 24 Nov 2017 · 35 MW · 9 25 Nov 2017 · 103 MW · 9 26 Nov 2017 · 288 MW · 9 27 Nov 2017 · 37 MW · 4 28 Nov 2017 · 236 MW · 18 29 Nov 2017 · 141 MW · 17 30 Nov 2017 · 358 MW · 31 1 Dec 2017 · 294 MW · 66 2 Dec 2017 · 451 MW · 126 3 Dec 2017 · 807 MW · 172 4 Dec 2017 · 507 MW · 80 5 Dec 2017 · 207 MW · 55 6 Dec 2017 · 231 MW · 32 7 Dec 2017 · 130 MW · 61 8 Dec 2017 · 2,300 MW · 74 9 Dec 2017 · 88 MW · 23 10 Dec 2017 · 1,364 MW · 51 11 Dec 2017 · 212 MW · 37 12 Dec 2017 · 192 MW · 79 13 Dec 2017 · 276 MW · 65 14 Dec 2017 · 260 MW · 61 15 Dec 2017 · 117 MW · 27 16 Dec 2017 · 152 MW · 35 19 Dec 2017 · 8 MW · 2 20 Dec 2017 · 25 MW · 4 23 Dec 2017 · 23 MW · 7
22 Nov 26 Nov 30 Nov 4 Dec 8 Dec 12 Dec 16 Dec

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
44km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

14% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,378 ha in 2016.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 20% of the area of London (318 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. Vokouma where it started
    32,005 ha reached on 22 Nov
    3.6 %

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 2015
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, 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)
22 Nov 34.4 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Nov 33.5 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Nov 33.2 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Nov 33.9 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Nov 34.6 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Nov 34.6 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Nov 35.1 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Nov 35.9 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Nov 35.9 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Dec 35.4 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
2 Dec 35.4 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Dec 35.7 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
4 Dec 36.5 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Dec 36.3 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Dec 36.2 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
7 Dec 35.7 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Dec 34.0 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
9 Dec 34.9 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Dec 36.2 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Dec 36.9 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Dec 37.0 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Dec 36.9 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 Dec 36.1 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Dec 35.5 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Dec 35.2 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Dec 35.2 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
18 Dec 35.6 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Dec 37.0 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Dec 37.0 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Dec 38.2 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Dec 38.3 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
23 Dec 38.7 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Dec after 37.3 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
25 Dec after 34.6 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
26 Dec after 34.7 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
27 Dec after 34.6 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
28 Dec after 36.1 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Dec after 35.6 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Dec after 36.4 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
31 Dec after 34.8 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
1 Jan after 32.2 °C 14 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
2 Jan after 31.2 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Nov 2017
After · 30 Dec 2017

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 · 1,162Every 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 Vokouma fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 22 November 2017 to 23 December 2017 (32 days). The perimeter dates it from 29 November 2017 to 16 December 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 31,782 hectares (317.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Vokouma (32,005 ha, 3.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.7 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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 29 November 2017 to 16 December 2017. 1,162 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 2015, 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.