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Etapalli fire, March 2018 Etapalli, Bhamragad

Out · last measured on 29 Mar 2018

The fire started on 23 March 2018 in Etapalli, India, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,573 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Mahārāshtra since 2016 (of 17 with a page). Number 2 in India in 2018, of 13.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
7,573ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
23 Mar 2018 – 29 Mar 2018
Municipalities hit
2
subdistricts
Started on
23 Mar
2018
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

40°high
34km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.6 mm on 31 Mar.

This area had burned before

25% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,791 ha in 2016, 151 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Etapalli where it started
    3,920 ha
    1.7 %
  2. Bhamragad
    3,691 ha
    2.6 %

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 Mar 38.9 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Mar 39.9 °C 12 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Mar 39.5 °C 14 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Mar 39.7 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Mar 39.3 °C 10 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Mar 40.0 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Mar 39.7 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Mar after 40.4 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
31 Mar after 38.6 °C 30 % 34 km/h 3.6 mm Moderate 20

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Mar 2018
After · 5 Apr 2018

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Other fires nearby

All fires in India ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Etapalli fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 March 2018 and 29 March 2018: 7 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 7,573 hectares (75.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Etapalli (3,920 ha, 1.7 %); Bhamragad (3,691 ha, 2.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.0 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of India (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.

Emergency number: 112

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

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.