How long did the Sidoktaya fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 March 2019 and 15 April 2019: 33 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 29,536 hectares (295.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Kanpetlet (21,974 ha, 8.8 %); Sidoktaya (4,691 ha, 1.7 %); Saw (3,014 ha, 1.7 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 41.3 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very 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.

MM · Myanmar · 2019-03-14 → 2019-04-15

Sidoktaya fire, 14 March 2019 Kanpetlet, Sidoktaya, Saw

Out · last detection 16 Apr 2019, 18:59 UTC

The fire started on 14 March 2019 in Sidoktaya, Myanmar, and satellites saw it burning for 33 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 29,536 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Magway since 2016 (of 190 with a page). The largest in Myanmar in 2019, of 177.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Sidoktaya · 2017 Kanpetlet · 2016 Kanpetlet · 2018 Sidoktaya · 2016

Burnt area: 29,536ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 33days; 14 Mar 2019 – 15 Apr 2019
Municipalities hit: 3; municipalities
Started on: 14 Mar; 2019
Heat detections: 1,682; in a single hotspot: 182 MW
Danger at start: 13; Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power: 299MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Mar15 Apr

Play back 16 Apr 2019

How it evolved, day by day

14 Mar 19 Mar 24 Mar 29 Mar 3 Apr 8 Apr 10 Apr 13 Apr

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

The weather it burned in

41°high

55km/h · peak gust

20%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 14,764 ha in 2016, 14,788 ha in 2017, 7,482 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 22,823 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 19% of the area of London (295 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

Kanpetlet

21,974 ha

8.8 %
Sidoktaya where it started

4,691 ha

1.7 %
Saw

3,014 ha

1.7 %

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 2020

Built-up area0.46 ha

Residents≈ 600

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.46 hectares of built-up land and about 600 residents (GHSL 2020, 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.

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)
9 Mar	32.0 °C	27 %	40 km/h	1.1 mm	Moderate 13
10 Mar	33.7 °C	29 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
11 Mar	34.9 °C	33 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
12 Mar	36.9 °C	25 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
13 Mar	36.9 °C	29 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
14 Mar	37.4 °C	32 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
15 Mar	37.8 °C	31 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
16 Mar	37.6 °C	32 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
17 Mar	36.1 °C	20 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
18 Mar	37.8 °C	25 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
19 Mar	35.6 °C	30 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
20 Mar	35.7 °C	33 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
21 Mar	36.7 °C	24 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
22 Mar	38.5 °C	22 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
23 Mar	38.6 °C	27 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
24 Mar	37.9 °C	26 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
25 Mar	38.6 °C	27 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
26 Mar	38.8 °C	28 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
27 Mar	37.6 °C	27 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
28 Mar	37.1 °C	24 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
29 Mar	37.7 °C	32 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
30 Mar	38.3 °C	21 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
31 Mar	37.6 °C	28 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
1 Apr	36.4 °C	29 %	38 km/h	0.2 mm	High 35
2 Apr	37.9 °C	29 %	48 km/h	0.9 mm	High 32
3 Apr	38.0 °C	21 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
4 Apr	38.4 °C	25 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
5 Apr	38.2 °C	27 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
6 Apr	35.6 °C	35 %	45 km/h	1.9 mm	Moderate 18
7 Apr	38.5 °C	24 %	55 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 40
8 Apr	37.4 °C	27 %	54 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 40
9 Apr	35.8 °C	30 %	51 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 40
10 Apr	37.7 °C	22 %	49 km/h	0.9 mm	Very high 38
11 Apr	39.0 °C	25 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
12 Apr	40.2 °C	26 %	43 km/h	0.1 mm	High 38
13 Apr	40.4 °C	30 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
14 Apr	40.6 °C	28 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
15 Apr	40.3 °C	26 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
16 Apr after	40.6 °C	26 %	38 km/h	0.3 mm	High 37
17 Apr after	40.9 °C	30 %	32 km/h	0.8 mm	High 32
18 Apr after	41.3 °C	25 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
19 Apr after	40.5 °C	23 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
20 Apr after	40.6 °C	24 %	45 km/h	0.4 mm	Very high 42
21 Apr after	40.1 °C	21 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
22 Apr after	40.0 °C	29 %	39 km/h	1.3 mm	High 32
23 Apr after	39.3 °C	25 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
24 Apr after	40.6 °C	26 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
25 Apr after	41.3 °C	24 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
26 Apr after	40.3 °C	28 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
27 Apr after	40.1 °C	30 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
28 Apr after	39.9 °C	27 %	48 km/h	0.6 mm	Very high 40
29 Apr after	41.5 °C	25 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
30 Apr after	40.9 °C	28 %	48 km/h	0.4 mm	Very high 45
1 May after	38.4 °C	36 %	52 km/h	0.6 mm	High 35
2 May after	37.0 °C	41 %	41 km/h	0.6 mm	High 28

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 7 Mar 2019

After · 22 Apr 2019

Before After

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 · 1,682Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Myanmar ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Sidoktaya fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 March 2019 and 15 April 2019: 33 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 29,536 hectares (295.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Kanpetlet (21,974 ha, 8.8 %); Sidoktaya (4,691 ha, 1.7 %); Saw (3,014 ha, 1.7 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 41.3 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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

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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; 5 polygons grouped in this page.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 1,682 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 2020, 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.

Where it burned