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Maru fire, 30 January 2017 Maru, Faskari

Out · last detection 8 Feb 2017, 01:10 UTC

The fire started on 30 January 2017 in Maru, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,150 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 51th largest in Zamfara since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 24 in Nigeria in 2017, of 143.

Burnt area
4,150ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
30 Jan 2017 – 7 Feb 2017
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
30 Jan
2017
Heat detections
146
in a single hotspot: 70 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
685MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Feb 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Jan7 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

303112345678

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
54km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

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

  1. Maru where it started
    3,770 ha reached on 28 Jan
    0.5 %
  2. Faskari
    402 ha reached on 30 Jan
    0.3 %

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)
30 Jan 31.5 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
31 Jan 30.9 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
1 Feb 31.6 °C 11 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
2 Feb 31.4 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
3 Feb 31.5 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 Feb 30.3 °C 10 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
5 Feb 30.3 °C 8 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
6 Feb 30.5 °C 9 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
7 Feb 30.5 °C 10 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
8 Feb after 30.6 °C 6 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
9 Feb after 31.2 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
10 Feb after 30.9 °C 12 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
11 Feb after 31.9 °C 8 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
12 Feb after 31.6 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
13 Feb after 30.5 °C 8 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
14 Feb after 29.7 °C 10 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
15 Feb after 29.8 °C 10 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
16 Feb after 28.5 °C 11 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
17 Feb after 28.1 °C 9 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Jan 2017
After · 14 Feb 2017

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 · 146Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Nigeria ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Maru fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 January 2017 and 7 February 2017: 9 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 4,150 hectares (41.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Maru (3,770 ha, 0.5 %); Faskari (402 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, 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
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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

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.