Skip to content
worldfires
ET · Ethiopia · →

Abay Chomen fire, December 2017 Abay Chomen, Ababo, Jarte Jardega

Out · last detection 29 Dec 2017, 11:00 UTC

The fire started on 25 December 2017 in Abay Chomen, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,211 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 211th largest in Oromia since 2016 (of 264 with a page). Number 227 in Ethiopia in 2017, of 266.

The power measured by the satellite is low (26.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,211ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
25 Dec 2017 – 29 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
25 Dec
2017
Heat detections
43
in a single hotspot: 27 MW
Energy released
172MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Dec29 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

2526272829

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

This area had burned before

29% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 652 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Abay Chomen where it started
    1,870 ha reached on 25 Dec
    2.4 %
  2. Ababo
    329 ha reached on 27 Dec
    0.3 %
  3. Jarte Jardega
    27 ha
    0.0 %

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.

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Dec 2017
After · 5 Jan 2018

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 · 43Every 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 Ethiopia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Abay Chomen fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 December 2017 and 29 December 2017: 5 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 2,211 hectares (22.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Abay Chomen (1,870 ha, 2.4 %); Ababo (329 ha, 0.3 %); Jarte Jardega (27 ha, 0.0 %).
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Ethiopia (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
What do you think is wrong?

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

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.