Dibat fire, March 2021 Dibat, Mandura
The fire started on 25 March 2021 in Dibat, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,279 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 553th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 699 with a page). Number 202 in Ethiopia in 2021, of 255.
- Burnt area
- 2,279ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 25 Mar 2021 – 27 Mar 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 25 Mar
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 64
- in a single hotspot: 32 MW
- Energy released
- 572MW
- 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
93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,375 ha in 2016, 1,119 ha in 2017, 865 ha in 2018, 2,013 ha in 2019, 1,358 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,125 ha that had burned before.
- 1,358 ha Dibat fire, March 2020 3,940 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,164 ha Dibat fire, March 2019 3,238 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,119 ha Dibat fire, March 2017 2,900 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,111 ha Dangura fire, February 2016 89,959 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 204 ha Dangura fire, March 2018 55,315 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dibat where it started2,150 ha reached on 25 Mar1.0 %
-
146 ha reached on 25 Mar0.1 %
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 · 64Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 42,975 haManduraMarch 2021 · 9 days · 9 km away
- 55,315 haDanguraMarch 2018 · 6 days · 11 km away
- 39,575 haDangura24 February 2025 · 15 days · 12 km away
- 55,089 haMandura25 February 2024 · 15 days · 14 km away
- 125,093 haDangura29 January 2020 · 52 days · 34 km away
- 91,996 haBulen26 January 2022 · 53 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dibat fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 March 2021 and 27 March 2021: 3 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 2,279 hectares (22.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dibat (2,150 ha, 1.0 %); Mandura (146 ha, 0.1 %).
- 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.