Dembecha fire, January 2023 Dembecha, Debre Elias, Bure
The fire started on 24 January 2023 in Dembecha, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,891 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 92th largest in Amhara since 2016 (of 171 with a page). Number 47 in Ethiopia in 2023, of 101.
- Burnt area
- 2,891ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 24 Jan 2023 – 28 Jan 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- districts
- Started on
- 24 Jan
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 127
- in a single hotspot: 40 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.0GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,373 ha in 2016, 1,395 ha in 2017, 1,672 ha in 2018, 715 ha in 2019, 1,609 ha in 2020, 831 ha in 2021, 920 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,759 ha that had burned before.
- 1,395 ha Bure fire, November 2017 8,418 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,050 ha Dembecha fire, January 2020 5,366 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 920 ha Bure fire, January 2022 7,742 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 883 ha Bure fire, December 2016 9,701 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 788 ha Dembecha fire, January 2021 2,074 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 381 ha Dembecha fire, December 2018 10,555 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 43 ha Debre Elias fire, February 2021 4,519 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dembecha where it started2,278 ha reached on 23 Jan2.4 %
-
609 ha reached on 25 Jan0.5 %
-
22 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Jan | 34.7 °C | 19 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 25 Jan | 33.6 °C | 16 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 26 Jan | 34.4 °C | 20 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 27 Jan | 34.1 °C | 17 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 28 Jan | 34.7 °C | 19 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 29 Jan after | 33.4 °C | 16 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 30 Jan after | 34.5 °C | 18 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 31 Jan after | 35.5 °C | 19 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 1 Feb after | 35.1 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 2 Feb after | 34.9 °C | 20 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 3 Feb after | 34.1 °C | 14 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 4 Feb after | 34.8 °C | 16 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 5 Feb after | 33.7 °C | 10 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 6 Feb after | 34.1 °C | 16 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 7 Feb after | 35.2 °C | 14 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
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 · 127Every 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 Dembecha fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 January 2023 and 28 January 2023: 5 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 2,891 hectares (28.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Dembecha (2,278 ha, 2.4 %); Debre Elias (609 ha, 0.5 %); Bure (22 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 27 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.