Kanpetlet fire, February 2021 Kanpetlet, Sidoktaya
The fire started on 25 February 2021 in Kanpetlet, Myanmar, and satellites saw it burning for 38 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 19,378 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 9th largest in Chin since 2016 (of 242 with a page). Number 6 in Myanmar in 2021, of 190.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 19,378ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 38days
- 25 Feb 2021 – 3 Apr 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 25 Feb
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 1,029
- in a single hotspot: 213 MW
- Danger at start
- 25
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 187MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 4 Apr.
This area had burned before
91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,100 ha in 2016, 8,818 ha in 2017, 3,764 ha in 2018, 8,271 ha in 2019, 13,887 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 17,626 ha that had burned before.
- 10,211 ha Kanpetlet fire, March 2020 18,538 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,741 ha Sidoktaya fire, March 2019 29,536 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,190 ha Sidoktaya fire, March 2017 16,167 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,804 ha Kanpetlet fire, March 2020 3,527 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,338 ha Kanpetlet fire, March 2016 2,173 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,137 ha Kanpetlet fire, March 2018 2,138 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,142 ha Kanpetlet fire, March 2017 3,535 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 733 ha Kanpetlet fire, March 2020 24,764 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Kanpetlet where it started18,789 ha reached on 25 Feb7.5 %
-
672 ha reached on 26 Feb0.2 %
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Feb | 31.4 °C | 26 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 26 Feb | 32.6 °C | 18 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 27 Feb | 31.2 °C | 21 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 28 Feb | 32.7 °C | 23 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 1 Mar | 33.3 °C | 24 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 2 Mar | 33.1 °C | 24 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 3 Mar | 33.0 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 4 Mar | 31.4 °C | 13 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 5 Mar | 32.8 °C | 13 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 6 Mar | 30.8 °C | 16 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 7 Mar | 31.5 °C | 23 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 8 Mar | 32.2 °C | 23 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 9 Mar | 33.5 °C | 22 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 10 Mar | 33.3 °C | 21 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 11 Mar | 33.5 °C | 23 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 12 Mar | 33.9 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Mar | 35.1 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 14 Mar | 34.8 °C | 20 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 15 Mar | 34.7 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 16 Mar | 34.7 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 17 Mar | 34.9 °C | 21 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 18 Mar | 34.2 °C | 19 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 19 Mar | 36.2 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 20 Mar | 36.3 °C | 20 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 21 Mar | 35.9 °C | 21 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 22 Mar | 36.3 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 23 Mar | 36.2 °C | 22 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 24 Mar | 36.2 °C | 23 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 25 Mar | 37.3 °C | 20 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 26 Mar | 36.2 °C | 16 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 27 Mar | 36.1 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 28 Mar | 32.6 °C | 22 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 29 Mar | 34.3 °C | 18 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 30 Mar | 32.3 °C | 29 % | 66 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 31 Mar | 33.4 °C | 35 % | 67 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 1 Apr | 34.0 °C | 33 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 2 Apr | 36.4 °C | 22 % | 39 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 37 |
| 3 Apr | 36.6 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 4 Apr after | 28.7 °C | 48 % | 34 km/h | 1.7 mm | Low 11 |
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 · 1,029Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 19,991 haKanpetlet7 March 2025 · 30 days · 3 km away
- 29,536 haSidoktaya9 March 2019 · 45 days · 6 km away
- 17,031 haKanpetletMarch 2024 · 23 days · 6 km away
- 24,764 haKanpetlet20 March 2020 · 30 days · 7 km away
- 18,538 haKanpetlet9 March 2020 · 40 days · 14 km away
- 17,092 haSaw21 February 2021 · 32 days · 23 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kanpetlet fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 25 February 2021 to 3 April 2021 (38 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 March 2021 to 27 March 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 19,378 hectares (193.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kanpetlet (18,789 ha, 7.5 %); Sidoktaya (672 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 67 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 27 March 2021 → 3 April 2021.
- Start date: 4 March 2021 → 25 February 2021.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 4 March 2021 to 27 March 2021. 1,029 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.
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.