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Gangaw fire, January 2023 Gangaw, Matupi, Hakha

Out · last detection 22 Feb 2023, 19:01 UTC

The fire started on 29 January 2023 in Gangaw, Myanmar, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,643 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 8th largest in Magway since 2016 (of 190 with a page). Number 11 in Myanmar in 2023, of 240.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Gangaw · 2016Tilin · 2019Gangaw · 2016Gangaw · 2019

Burnt area
13,643ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
24days
29 Jan 2023 – 21 Feb 2023
Municipalities hit
4
municipalities
Started on
29 Jan
2023
Heat detections
619
in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start
13
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
85MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Jan21 Feb
22 Feb 2023

How it evolved, day by day

29 Jan 2023 · 7 MW · 1 30 Jan 2023 · 9 MW · 2 31 Jan 2023 · 73 MW · 12 1 Feb 2023 · 68 MW · 9 3 Feb 2023 · 32 MW · 4 4 Feb 2023 · 50 MW · 22 5 Feb 2023 · 189 MW · 98 6 Feb 2023 · 245 MW · 72 7 Feb 2023 · 246 MW · 70 8 Feb 2023 · 105 MW · 38 9 Feb 2023 · 252 MW · 53 10 Feb 2023 · 186 MW · 81 11 Feb 2023 · 129 MW · 49 12 Feb 2023 · 56 MW · 21 13 Feb 2023 · 87 MW · 16 14 Feb 2023 · 98 MW · 23 15 Feb 2023 · 19 MW · 10 16 Feb 2023 · 22 MW · 6 17 Feb 2023 · 11 MW · 3 18 Feb 2023 · 11 MW · 3 19 Feb 2023 · 7 MW · 2 21 Feb 2023 · 33 MW · 10 22 Feb 2023 · 18 MW · 14
29 Jan 3 Feb 7 Feb 9 Feb 11 Feb 15 Feb 19 Feb

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
32km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 29 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,646 ha in 2016, 5,040 ha in 2017, 4,762 ha in 2019, 4,943 ha in 2020, 865 ha in 2021, 3,198 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,483 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 8.6% of the area of London (136 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. Gangaw where it started
    5,229 ha reached on 29 Jan
    2.1 %
  2. Matupi
    4,647 ha reached on 6 Feb
    0.8 %
  3. Hakha
    3,671 ha reached on 30 Jan
    0.8 %
  4. Tilin
    154 ha reached on 30 Jan
    0.1 %

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.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area1.8 ha
Residents≈ 350

Inside the perimeter there were about 1.8 hectares of built-up land and about 350 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
29 Jan 28.3 °C 60 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
30 Jan 29.3 °C 57 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
31 Jan 30.4 °C 57 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
1 Feb 30.3 °C 57 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
2 Feb 26.4 °C 64 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
3 Feb 28.7 °C 63 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
4 Feb 30.5 °C 48 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
5 Feb 30.9 °C 35 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
6 Feb 30.6 °C 30 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
7 Feb 29.4 °C 27 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
8 Feb 28.6 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
9 Feb 29.0 °C 42 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
10 Feb 29.4 °C 45 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
11 Feb 31.4 °C 33 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
12 Feb 31.4 °C 33 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
13 Feb 31.1 °C 32 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
14 Feb 29.6 °C 45 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
15 Feb 30.0 °C 42 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
16 Feb 30.2 °C 40 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
17 Feb 30.4 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
18 Feb 31.1 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
19 Feb 30.0 °C 43 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
20 Feb 30.0 °C 46 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
21 Feb 30.8 °C 46 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
22 Feb after 33.5 °C 40 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
23 Feb after 34.4 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
24 Feb after 31.8 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
25 Feb after 29.9 °C 48 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
26 Feb after 32.3 °C 37 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
27 Feb after 32.9 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
28 Feb after 32.3 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
1 Mar after 31.8 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
2 Mar after 33.2 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
3 Mar after 32.8 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Jan 2023
After · 28 Feb 2023

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

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 7 February 2023 the air beside the fire reached 68 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 41: 2.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak68 µg/m³
Days over the guideline16 days
PM1097 µg/m³
Optical depth0.54
2930311234567891011121314151617
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 619Every 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 Myanmar ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Gangaw fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 29 January 2023 to 21 February 2023 (24 days). The perimeter dates it from 31 January 2023 to 14 February 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 13,643 hectares (136.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Gangaw (5,229 ha, 2.1 %); Matupi (4,647 ha, 0.8 %); Hakha (3,671 ha, 0.8 %); Tilin (154 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Myanmar (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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 14 February 2023 → 21 February 2023.
  2. Start date: 31 January 2023 → 29 January 2023.

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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 31 January 2023 to 14 February 2023. 619 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.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

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 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). 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.