Bindura fire, September 2023 Bindura, Shamva
The fire started on 16 September 2023 in Bindura, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,082 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 42th largest in Mashonaland Central since 2016 (of 334 with a page). Number 30 in Zimbabwe in 2023, of 173.
- Burnt area
- 2,082ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 16 Sept 2023 – 24 Sept 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 16 Sept
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 59
- in a single hotspot: 139 MW
- Energy released
- 1.4GW
- 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.
This area had burned before
55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 302 ha in 2016, 211 ha in 2018, 300 ha in 2019, 655 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,152 ha that had burned before.
- 655 ha Shamva fire, September 2022 1,872 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 302 ha Shamva fire, September 2016 1,307 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 300 ha Bindura fire, September 2019 1,532 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 211 ha Shamva fire, September 2018 1,960 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bindura where it started1,491 ha reached on 16 Sept0.7 %
-
606 ha reached on 18 Sept0.2 %
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.
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 · 59Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 1,872 haShamva28 September 2022 · 6 days · 2 km away
- 2,449 haShamva 13 October 2026 · 10 days · 3 km away
- 1,960 haShamva11 September 2018 · 6 days · 3 km away
- 2,093 haShamva18 September 2018 · 4 days · 14 km away
- 1,968 haShamvaOctober 2016 · 3 days · 14 km away
- 5,962 haMurehwa6 October 2022 · 5 days · 30 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bindura fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 September 2023 and 24 September 2023: 9 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 2,082 hectares (20.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bindura (1,491 ha, 0.7 %); Shamva (606 ha, 0.2 %).
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Zimbabwe (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.