Mahabo fire, June 2021 Mahabo, Morondava
The fire started on 25 June 2021 in Mahabo, Madagascar, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,489 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 58th largest in Menabe since 2016 (of 98 with a page). Number 17 in Madagascar in 2021, of 34.
The power measured by the satellite is low (18.4 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 2,489ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 16days
- 25 Jun 2021 – 10 Jul 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 25 Jun
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 191
- in a single hotspot: 18 MW
- Energy released
- 1.1GW
- 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.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,620 ha in 2017, 3,248 ha in 2018, 1,289 ha in 2019, 4,752 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,502 ha that had burned before.
- 3,648 ha Mahabo fire, September 2020 6,536 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,196 ha Morondava fire, October 2018 5,771 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,490 ha Mahabo fire, October 2017 2,123 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 14 ha Morondava fire, October 2019 2,408 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mahabo where it started1,534 ha reached on 19 Jun0.1 %
-
960 ha reached on 21 Jun0.2 %
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.
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 · 191Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,536 haMahabo22 September 2020 · 40 days · 1 km away
- 5,771 haMorondava17 October 2018 · 15 days · 3 km away
- 10,941 haMahabo8 October 2016 · 27 days · 10 km away
- 7,808 haMorondavaAugust 2026 · 11 days · 17 km away
- 6,286 haBelo Sur Tsiribihina4 October 2017 · 20 days · 21 km away
- 5,499 haBelo Sur Tsiribihina5 August 2021 · 21 days · 24 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mahabo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 June 2021 and 10 July 2021: 16 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 2,489 hectares (24.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mahabo (1,534 ha, 0.1 %); Morondava (960 ha, 0.2 %).
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Madagascar (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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.