Bárue fire, 25 September 2017 Bárue
The fire started on 25 September 2017 in Bárue, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,745 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 10th largest in Manica since 2016 (of 198 with a page). Number 13 in Mozambique in 2017, of 196.
- Burnt area
- 12,745ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 17days
- 25 Sept 2017 – 11 Oct 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 25 Sept
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 852
- in a single hotspot: 171 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 9.8GW
- 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 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 21 Oct.
This area had burned before
48% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,204 ha in 2016.
- 5,113 ha Bárue fire, September 2016 25,445 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 167 ha Bárue fire, September 2016 8,047 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 78 ha Bárue fire, September 2016 3,228 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bárue where it started12,813 ha reached on 18 Sept2.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Sept | 28.6 °C | 41 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 19 Sept | 28.3 °C | 47 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 20 Sept | 27.7 °C | 51 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 21 Sept | 27.2 °C | 44 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 22 Sept | 29.0 °C | 39 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 23 Sept | 33.9 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 24 Sept | 25.3 °C | 55 % | 44 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 25 Sept | 30.0 °C | 41 % | 23 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 26 Sept | 35.4 °C | 25 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 27 Sept | 31.2 °C | 46 % | 36 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 29 |
| 28 Sept | 27.8 °C | 50 % | 47 km/h | 4.6 mm | Low 7 |
| 29 Sept | 24.9 °C | 62 % | 42 km/h | 5.4 mm | Very low 3 |
| 30 Sept | 28.4 °C | 46 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 1 Oct | 28.2 °C | 43 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 2 Oct | 29.5 °C | 36 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 3 Oct | 29.9 °C | 40 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 4 Oct | 31.1 °C | 38 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 5 Oct | 33.3 °C | 35 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 6 Oct | 31.6 °C | 35 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 7 Oct | 29.4 °C | 44 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 8 Oct | 34.2 °C | 30 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 9 Oct | 31.7 °C | 38 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 10 Oct | 35.7 °C | 27 % | 28 km/h | 2.4 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 11 Oct | 30.2 °C | 49 % | 47 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 12 Oct after | 29.7 °C | 39 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 13 Oct after | 28.2 °C | 33 % | 49 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 28 |
| 14 Oct after | 25.0 °C | 47 % | 38 km/h | 2.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 15 Oct after | 32.8 °C | 24 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 16 Oct after | 38.3 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 17 Oct after | 41.2 °C | 12 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 18 Oct after | 27.2 °C | 45 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 19 Oct after | 30.9 °C | 49 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 20 Oct after | 36.3 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 30 |
| 21 Oct after | 32.8 °C | 40 % | 43 km/h | 1.6 mm | Moderate 19 |
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 · 852Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 12,021 haBárue30 September 2017 · 18 days · 7 km away
- 27,713 haBárue1 September 2023 · 25 days · 10 km away
- 30,185 haMacossa29 August 2025 · 25 days · 21 km away
- 13,314 haBárue11 September 2026 · 18 days · 24 km away
- 28,721 haMacossa11 September 2026 · 18 days · 25 km away
- 25,445 haBárue5 September 2016 · 18 days · 25 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bárue fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 September 2017 and 11 October 2017: 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 12,745 hectares (127.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Bárue (12,813 ha, 2.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 41.2 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Mozambique (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 ADM2 (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.