Mariga fire, 11 January 2016 Mariga, Birnin Gwari
The fire started on 11 January 2016 in Mariga, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,850 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 163th largest in Niger since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 80 in Nigeria in 2016, of 198.
- Burnt area
- 2,850ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 11 Jan 2016 – 17 Jan 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 11 Jan
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 111
- in a single hotspot: 118 MW
- Danger at start
- 55
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 480MW
- 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
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Mariga where it started2,733 ha reached on 6 Jan0.4 %
-
138 ha reached on 10 Jan0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Jan | 35.4 °C | 11 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 12 Jan | 33.8 °C | 11 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 13 Jan | 33.1 °C | 16 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 14 Jan | 32.9 °C | 16 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 15 Jan | 33.8 °C | 13 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 16 Jan | 33.4 °C | 15 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 17 Jan | 34.0 °C | 18 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 18 Jan after | 34.1 °C | 12 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 19 Jan after | 33.3 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 20 Jan after | 32.2 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 21 Jan after | 32.7 °C | 10 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 22 Jan after | 33.5 °C | 10 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 23 Jan after | 31.5 °C | 10 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 24 Jan after | 29.3 °C | 13 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 25 Jan after | 29.7 °C | 13 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 26 Jan after | 28.8 °C | 13 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 27 Jan after | 29.3 °C | 12 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
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 · 111Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 10,219 haMariga2 November 2025 · 17 days · 19 km away
- 8,653 haMariga13 November 2025 · 11 days · 23 km away
- 14,687 haMariga1 January 2026 · 29 days · 28 km away
- 16,590 haMaru23 January 2020 · 18 days · 29 km away
- 12,418 haMariga25 December 2023 · 11 days · 33 km away
- 38,283 haBirnin Gwari9 January 2022 · 32 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mariga fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 January 2016 and 17 January 2016: 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 2,850 hectares (28.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mariga (2,733 ha, 0.4 %); Birnin Gwari (138 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.4 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Nigeria (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.
Emergency number: 112
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 4.0 International (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.