Yoko fire, January 2025 Ngambé-Tikar, Yoko
The fire started on 26 January 2025 in Yoko, Cameroon, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,446 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 22th largest in Centre since 2016 (of 200 with a page). Number 20 in Cameroon in 2025, of 396.
- Burnt area
- 5,446ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 17days
- 26 Jan 2025 – 11 Feb 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- communes
- Started on
- 26 Jan
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 403
- in a single hotspot: 175 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.7GW
- sum of detected power
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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,722 ha in 2017, 2,777 ha in 2019, 2,134 ha in 2020, 2,980 ha in 2021, 4,575 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,806 ha that had burned before.
- 4,575 ha Ngambé-Tikar fire, February 2023 9,022 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,316 ha Ngambé-Tikar fire, February 2021 3,346 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,873 ha Ngambé-Tikar fire, February 2019 2,390 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,722 ha Ngambé-Tikar fire, February 2017 1,965 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,251 ha Ngambé-Tikar fire, February 2020 1,290 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 904 ha Yoko fire, February 2019 1,728 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 882 ha Yoko fire, February 2020 2,043 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 663 ha Yoko fire, February 2021 1,284 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
2,995 ha reached on 25 Jan0.4 %
-
Yoko where it started2,487 ha reached on 23 Jan0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Jan | 33.3 °C | 19 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 27 Jan | 34.0 °C | 17 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 28 Jan | 33.2 °C | 20 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 29 Jan | 33.2 °C | 16 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 30 Jan | 33.6 °C | 17 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 31 Jan | 32.3 °C | 19 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 1 Feb | 32.4 °C | 19 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 2 Feb | 33.2 °C | 20 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 3 Feb | 34.8 °C | 17 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 4 Feb | 34.2 °C | 23 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 5 Feb | 33.9 °C | 28 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 6 Feb | 35.4 °C | 17 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 7 Feb | 34.3 °C | 20 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 8 Feb | 33.6 °C | 30 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 36 |
| 9 Feb | 35.6 °C | 15 % | 30 km/h | 0.8 mm | Very high 41 |
| 10 Feb | 35.0 °C | 22 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 11 Feb | 35.0 °C | 16 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 12 Feb after | 34.9 °C | 13 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 13 Feb after | 34.5 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 14 Feb after | 34.4 °C | 18 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 15 Feb after | 34.4 °C | 15 % | 25 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 47 |
| 16 Feb after | 34.2 °C | 14 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 17 Feb after | 35.4 °C | 15 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 18 Feb after | 35.8 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 19 Feb after | 32.5 °C | 38 % | 28 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 36 |
| 20 Feb after | 34.3 °C | 21 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 21 Feb after | 33.8 °C | 26 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
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 13 February 2025 the air beside the fire reached 159 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 97: 6.5 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 · 403Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Yoko fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 January 2025 and 11 February 2025: 17 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,446 hectares (54.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ngambé-Tikar (2,995 ha, 0.4 %); Yoko (2,487 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Cameroon (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
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 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.