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Esira fire, December 2018 Esira, Melekoza

Out · last detection 26 Jan 2019, 22:27 UTC

The fire started on 26 December 2018 in Esira, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 32 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,463 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 12th largest in SNNPR since 2016 (of 186 with a page). Number 10 in Ethiopia in 2018, of 102.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Esira · 2016Ela (Konta) SP Woreda · 2019Melekoza · 2019Ela (Konta) SP Woreda · 2016

Burnt area
9,463ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
32days
26 Dec 2018 – 26 Jan 2019
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
26 Dec
2018
Heat detections
408
in a single hotspot: 194 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Average daily power
86MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Dec26 Jan
26 Jan 2019

How it evolved, day by day

26 Dec 2018 · 230 MW · 17 27 Dec 2018 · 6 MW · 3 28 Dec 2018 · 30 MW · 5 30 Dec 2018 · 9 MW · 1 31 Dec 2018 · 5 MW · 1 1 Jan 2019 · 7 MW · 1 2 Jan 2019 · 64 MW · 9 3 Jan 2019 · 21 MW · 11 4 Jan 2019 · 232 MW · 25 5 Jan 2019 · 60 MW · 7 6 Jan 2019 · 93 MW · 10 7 Jan 2019 · 57 MW · 20 8 Jan 2019 · 69 MW · 19 9 Jan 2019 · 83 MW · 10 10 Jan 2019 · 30 MW · 12 11 Jan 2019 · 487 MW · 25 12 Jan 2019 · 80 MW · 24 13 Jan 2019 · 27 MW · 13 14 Jan 2019 · 12 MW · 9 15 Jan 2019 · 94 MW · 23 16 Jan 2019 · 133 MW · 40 17 Jan 2019 · 186 MW · 49 18 Jan 2019 · 180 MW · 34 19 Jan 2019 · 201 MW · 27 20 Jan 2019 · 2 MW · 1 21 Jan 2019 · 48 MW · 6 23 Jan 2019 · 30 MW · 3 24 Jan 2019 · 1 MW · 1 26 Jan 2019 · 10 MW · 2
26 Dec 1 Jan 6 Jan 11 Jan 16 Jan 21 Jan

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

37°high
35km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

38% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,901 ha in 2016, 2,003 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,600 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 6% of the area of London (95 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Esira where it started
    7,991 ha reached on 26 Dec
    7.5 %
  2. Melekoza
    1,533 ha reached on 26 Dec
    0.9 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area 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)
26 Dec 35.3 °C 29 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
27 Dec 35.8 °C 30 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
28 Dec 35.3 °C 35 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
29 Dec 35.7 °C 32 % 20 km/h 0.2 mm High 21
30 Dec 35.7 °C 33 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
31 Dec 35.1 °C 33 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
1 Jan 35.2 °C 32 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
2 Jan 35.1 °C 34 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
3 Jan 35.6 °C 28 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
4 Jan 36.8 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
5 Jan 36.2 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
6 Jan 36.1 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Jan 35.5 °C 25 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
8 Jan 36.7 °C 18 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Jan 36.5 °C 15 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
10 Jan 37.0 °C 15 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
11 Jan 36.6 °C 13 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Jan 36.6 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Jan 36.6 °C 13 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Jan 37.0 °C 15 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Jan 37.1 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
16 Jan 37.1 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
17 Jan 37.2 °C 23 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Jan 36.9 °C 24 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Jan 35.1 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
20 Jan 36.0 °C 29 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 Jan 36.5 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Jan 36.5 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Jan 36.8 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Jan 36.1 °C 28 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Jan 38.0 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Jan 37.7 °C 22 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Jan after 37.8 °C 24 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Jan after 38.4 °C 25 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Jan after 37.3 °C 27 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Jan after 37.3 °C 19 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Jan after 37.7 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Feb after 38.0 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Feb after 37.4 °C 18 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 19 Dec 2018
After · 2 Feb 2019

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 · 408Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Ethiopia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Esira fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 26 December 2018 to 26 January 2019 (32 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 January 2019 to 19 January 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 9,463 hectares (94.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Esira (7,991 ha, 7.5 %); Melekoza (1,533 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 2 January 2019 to 19 January 2019. 408 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.