Vokouma fire, 25 November 2021 Vokouma
The fire started on 25 November 2021 in Vokouma, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,611 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 11th largest in Vakaga since 2016 (of 72 with a page). Number 13 in Central African Republic in 2021, of 95.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 16,611ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 22days
- 25 Nov 2021 – 16 Dec 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 25 Nov
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 609
- in a single hotspot: 185 MW
- Danger at start
- 55
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 562MW
- 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 35 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,071 ha in 2016, 10,020 ha in 2017, 9,699 ha in 2019, 11,317 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 15,221 ha that had burned before.
- 10,972 ha Vokouma fire, December 2020 21,836 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8,681 ha Vokouma fire, December 2019 16,201 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,838 ha Vokouma fire, November 2017 31,782 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 809 ha Vokouma fire, December 2019 8,376 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 291 ha Vokouma fire, December 2017 5,623 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
-
Vokouma where it started16,723 ha reached on 25 Nov1.9 %
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 2020Inside 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Nov | 36.4 °C | 12 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 26 Nov | 36.7 °C | 9 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 27 Nov | 36.6 °C | 10 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 28 Nov | 37.2 °C | 14 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 29 Nov | 38.1 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 30 Nov | 37.7 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 1 Dec | 36.8 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 2 Dec | 36.5 °C | 16 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 3 Dec | 36.1 °C | 16 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 4 Dec | 37.0 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 5 Dec | 37.7 °C | 15 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 6 Dec | 36.9 °C | 14 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 7 Dec | 37.7 °C | 14 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 8 Dec | 37.5 °C | 13 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 9 Dec | 35.6 °C | 13 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 10 Dec | 36.3 °C | 12 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 11 Dec | 36.3 °C | 17 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 12 Dec | 37.3 °C | 14 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 13 Dec | 37.9 °C | 13 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 14 Dec | 38.3 °C | 13 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 15 Dec | 37.2 °C | 15 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 16 Dec | 36.3 °C | 14 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 17 Dec after | 35.4 °C | 12 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 18 Dec after | 34.0 °C | 13 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 19 Dec after | 34.7 °C | 14 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 20 Dec after | 34.6 °C | 14 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 21 Dec after | 34.1 °C | 12 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 22 Dec after | 34.3 °C | 13 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 23 Dec after | 35.0 °C | 12 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 24 Dec after | 35.9 °C | 12 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 25 Dec after | 34.9 °C | 13 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 26 Dec after | 36.3 °C | 12 % | 37 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.
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 · 609Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 36,505 haVokouma5 December 2025 · 41 days · 3 km away
- 21,836 haVokoumaDecember 2020 · 19 days · 6 km away
- 16,201 haVokouma7 December 2019 · 31 days · 7 km away
- 31,782 haVokouma22 November 2017 · 32 days · 12 km away
- 21,656 haVokoumaNovember 2019 · 24 days · 32 km away
- 9,661 haOuandja21 November 2017 · 17 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Vokouma fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 25 November 2021 to 16 December 2021 (22 days). The perimeter dates it from 25 November 2021 to 9 December 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 16,611 hectares (166.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Vokouma (16,723 ha, 1.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 11 December 2021 → 16 December 2021.
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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 25 November 2021 to 9 December 2021. 609 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.
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.