Esira fire, January 2021 Esira
The fire started on 24 January 2021 in Esira, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,422 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 24th largest in SNNPR since 2016 (of 186 with a page). Number 49 in Ethiopia in 2021, of 255.
- Burnt area
- 5,422ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 24 Jan 2021 – 29 Jan 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 24 Jan
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 176
- in a single hotspot: 41 MW
- Danger at start
- 24
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 975MW
- 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 49 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,803 ha in 2016, 2,159 ha in 2017, 3,013 ha in 2019, 388 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,701 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Esira where it started5,456 ha reached on 23 Jan5.1 %
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.
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 | 30.1 °C | 28 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 25 Jan | 30.3 °C | 28 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 26 Jan | 30.0 °C | 29 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 27 Jan | 31.1 °C | 19 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 28 Jan | 30.5 °C | 27 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 29 Jan | 30.8 °C | 29 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 30 Jan after | 30.9 °C | 27 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 31 Jan after | 31.0 °C | 21 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 1 Feb after | 31.4 °C | 19 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 2 Feb after | 31.4 °C | 20 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 3 Feb after | 31.4 °C | 19 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 4 Feb after | 31.1 °C | 23 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 5 Feb after | 30.5 °C | 28 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 6 Feb after | 30.8 °C | 27 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 7 Feb after | 28.8 °C | 32 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 8 Feb after | 30.5 °C | 39 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
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 · 176Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 9,463 haEsira2 January 2019 · 18 days · 5 km away
- 11,494 haMelekoza5 January 2019 · 11 days · 13 km away
- 18,505 haEla (Konta) SP Woreda10 January 2019 · 9 days · 22 km away
- 20,202 haEla (Konta) SP Woreda29 December 2016 · 20 days · 23 km away
- 10,858 haEsiraDecember 2016 · 15 days · 28 km away
- 17,621 haEla (Konta) SP Woreda22 December 2016 · 28 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Esira fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 January 2021 and 29 January 2021: 6 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 5,422 hectares (54.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Esira (5,456 ha, 5.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 22 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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.