Decha fire, 14 January 2021 Decha, Cheta
The fire started on 14 January 2021 in Decha, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,151 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 65th largest in SNNPR since 2016 (of 186 with a page). Number 118 in Ethiopia in 2021, of 255.
- Burnt area
- 3,151ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 14 Jan 2021 – 22 Jan 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 14 Jan
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 107
- in a single hotspot: 49 MW
- Danger at start
- 16
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 954MW
- 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 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,141 ha in 2016, 311 ha in 2017, 985 ha in 2018, 1,645 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,993 ha that had burned before.
- 2,298 ha Decha fire, December 2016 19,581 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 737 ha Decha fire, January 2018 2,551 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 249 ha Decha fire, January 2018 2,332 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 52 ha Cheta fire, January 2019 14,263 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Decha where it started2,951 ha reached on 8 Jan1.0 %
-
220 ha reached on 14 Jan0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Jan | 30.5 °C | 38 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 15 Jan | 31.0 °C | 35 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 16 Jan | 31.5 °C | 33 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 17 Jan | 31.2 °C | 36 % | 19 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 18 Jan | 31.6 °C | 35 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 19 Jan | 33.2 °C | 26 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 20 Jan | 33.2 °C | 26 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 21 Jan | 33.0 °C | 28 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 22 Jan | 33.4 °C | 29 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 23 Jan after | 31.1 °C | 37 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 24 Jan after | 32.5 °C | 32 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 25 Jan after | 32.9 °C | 32 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 26 Jan after | 32.7 °C | 30 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 27 Jan after | 33.7 °C | 27 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 28 Jan after | 33.6 °C | 27 % | 22 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 23 |
| 29 Jan after | 33.8 °C | 29 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 30 Jan after | 34.0 °C | 27 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 31 Jan after | 34.1 °C | 24 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 1 Feb after | 34.0 °C | 23 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
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 · 107Every 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 Decha fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 January 2021 and 22 January 2021: 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 3,151 hectares (31.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Decha (2,951 ha, 1.0 %); Cheta (220 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 23 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, class Moderate.
- 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
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.