Decha fire, 30 January 2021 Decha, Ela (Konta) SP Woreda, Melekoza
The fire started on 30 January 2021 in Decha, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 18,545 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 3th largest in SNNPR since 2016 (of 186 with a page). Number 6 in Ethiopia in 2021, of 255.
- Burnt area
- 18,545ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 12days
- 30 Jan 2021 – 10 Feb 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- districts
- Started on
- 30 Jan
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 766
- in a single hotspot: 156 MW
- Danger at start
- 19
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.9GW
- 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 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 21.3 mm on 22 Feb.
This area had burned before
70% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 10,415 ha in 2016, 2,357 ha in 2017, 5,222 ha in 2019, 79 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 13,034 ha that had burned before.
- 3,200 ha Decha fire, December 2016 5,653 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,155 ha Ela (Konta) SP Woreda fire, February 2016 5,112 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,103 ha Ela (Konta) SP Woreda fire, January 2019 10,767 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,670 ha Decha fire, February 2016 2,259 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,456 ha Ela (Konta) SP Woreda fire, February 2019 2,222 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 362 ha Selamgo fire, December 2017 2,633 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 46 ha Decha fire, February 2016 3,201 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Decha where it started12,866 ha reached on 23 Jan4.4 %
-
5,749 ha reached on 23 Jan2.4 %
-
42 ha reached on 25 Jan0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Jan | 26.5 °C | 32 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 24 Jan | 27.8 °C | 27 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 25 Jan | 28.0 °C | 27 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 26 Jan | 27.9 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 27 Jan | 28.6 °C | 24 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 28 Jan | 28.6 °C | 23 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 29 Jan | 29.1 °C | 24 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 30 Jan | 29.2 °C | 22 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 31 Jan | 29.1 °C | 20 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 1 Feb | 28.9 °C | 20 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 2 Feb | 29.2 °C | 20 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 3 Feb | 29.3 °C | 20 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 4 Feb | 29.3 °C | 19 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 5 Feb | 29.4 °C | 21 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 6 Feb | 29.1 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 7 Feb | 27.6 °C | 25 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 8 Feb | 28.9 °C | 34 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 9 Feb | 29.0 °C | 33 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 10 Feb | 30.4 °C | 26 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 11 Feb after | 27.4 °C | 29 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 12 Feb after | 28.3 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 13 Feb after | 28.6 °C | 26 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 14 Feb after | 29.5 °C | 24 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 15 Feb after | 29.6 °C | 26 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 16 Feb after | 29.7 °C | 24 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 17 Feb after | 29.5 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 18 Feb after | 28.0 °C | 29 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 19 Feb after | 27.6 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 20 Feb after | 27.2 °C | 34 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 21 Feb after | 26.6 °C | 38 % | 25 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 22 Feb after | 20.6 °C | 63 % | 27 km/h | 21.3 mm | Very low 0 |
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 · 766Every 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 30 January 2021 and 10 February 2021: 12 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 18,545 hectares (185.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Decha (12,866 ha, 4.4 %); Ela (Konta) SP Woreda (5,749 ha, 2.4 %); Melekoza (42 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.4 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class High.
- 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.