Dawei fire, March 2020 Dawei
The fire started on 22 March 2020 in Dawei, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,722 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the largest fire in Tanitharyi since 2016 (of 14 with a page). Number 18 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2020, of 166.
- Burnt area
- 6,722ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 14days
- 22 Mar 2020 – 4 Apr 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 22 Mar
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 266
- in a single hotspot: 90 MW
- Danger at start
- 7
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.9GW
- 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 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 5 Apr.
This area had burned before
30% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,048 ha in 2016.
What happened to each town
-
Dawei where it started6,751 ha reached on 22 Mar1.0 %
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Mar | 30.8 °C | 53 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 23 Mar | 32.6 °C | 39 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 24 Mar | 32.0 °C | 43 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 25 Mar | 33.5 °C | 37 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 26 Mar | 33.4 °C | 36 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 27 Mar | 33.9 °C | 39 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 28 Mar | 33.9 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 29 Mar | 33.6 °C | 38 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 30 Mar | 33.5 °C | 35 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 31 Mar | 34.7 °C | 37 % | 25 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 21 |
| 1 Apr | 34.5 °C | 39 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 22 |
| 2 Apr | 34.8 °C | 39 % | 24 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 23 |
| 3 Apr | 33.8 °C | 43 % | 22 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 4 Apr | 35.1 °C | 35 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 5 Apr after | 33.4 °C | 45 % | 23 km/h | 1.6 mm | Low 10 |
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 · 266Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,201 haDawei2 April 2026 · 21 days · 3 km away
- 13,861 haMueang KanchanaburiMarch 2026 · 26 days · 13 km away
- 8,169 haSuan Phueng2 April 2026 · 17 days · 17 km away
- 12,427 haMueang KanchanaburiMarch 2020 · 13 days · 19 km away
- 5,650 haMueang Kanchanaburi4 March 2019 · 12 days · 20 km away
- 9,389 haSuan Phueng2 April 2026 · 19 days · 23 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dawei fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 March 2020 and 4 April 2020: 14 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 6,722 hectares (67.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dawei (6,751 ha, 1.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Myanmar (Burma) (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 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). 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.