Hsipaw fire, 1 March 2025 Hsipaw, Kyaukme
The fire started on 1 March 2025 in Hsipaw, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,733 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 100th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 15 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2025, of 123.
- Burnt area
- 5,733ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 1 Mar 2025 – 7 Mar 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 1 Mar
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 196
- in a single hotspot: 70 MW
- Danger at start
- 30
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.6GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,404 ha in 2016, 3,094 ha in 2017, 1,219 ha in 2019, 2,706 ha in 2020, 2,590 ha in 2021, 2,034 ha in 2022, 3,616 ha in 2023, 2,786 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,414 ha that had burned before.
- 3,572 ha Hsipaw fire, February 2023 5,353 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,094 ha Hsipaw fire, February 2017 3,803 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,786 ha Hsipaw fire, March 2024 4,010 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,706 ha Hsipaw fire, February 2020 4,760 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,590 ha Hsipaw fire, February 2021 3,817 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,812 ha Hsipaw fire, February 2022 2,257 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,404 ha Hsipaw fire, March 2016 2,165 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Hsipaw where it started5,557 ha reached on 27 Feb1.0 %
-
211 ha reached on 5 Mar0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Mar | 30.3 °C | 29 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 2 Mar | 31.5 °C | 24 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 3 Mar | 31.0 °C | 26 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 4 Mar | 30.2 °C | 30 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 5 Mar | 30.2 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 6 Mar | 30.6 °C | 28 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 7 Mar | 30.8 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 8 Mar after | 31.3 °C | 20 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 9 Mar after | 30.9 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 10 Mar after | 31.7 °C | 26 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 11 Mar after | 31.5 °C | 23 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 12 Mar after | 31.6 °C | 24 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 13 Mar after | 31.1 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 14 Mar after | 32.1 °C | 23 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 15 Mar after | 32.7 °C | 25 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 16 Mar after | 33.8 °C | 24 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 17 Mar after | 33.7 °C | 23 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 10 March 2025 the air beside the fire reached 135 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 75: 5.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 196Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Hsipaw fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 March 2025 and 7 March 2025: 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 5,733 hectares (57.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Hsipaw (5,557 ha, 1.0 %); Kyaukme (211 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.5 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Myanmar (Burma) (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 (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.