Maru fire, 24 December 2017 Maru
The fire started on 24 December 2017 in Maru, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,778 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 108th largest in Zamfara since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 74 in Nigeria in 2017, of 143.
- Burnt area
- 2,778ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 24 Dec 2017 – 1 Jan 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- local government areas
- Started on
- 24 Dec
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 95
- in a single hotspot: 33 MW
- Danger at start
- 53
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 494MW
- 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
25% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 685 ha in 2016.
What happened to each town
-
Maru where it started2,791 ha reached on 24 Dec0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Dec | 29.9 °C | 18 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 25 Dec | 29.7 °C | 21 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 26 Dec | 30.4 °C | 20 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 27 Dec | 31.9 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 28 Dec | 33.0 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 29 Dec | 32.4 °C | 19 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 30 Dec | 30.7 °C | 13 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 31 Dec | 29.5 °C | 14 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 1 Jan | 28.8 °C | 15 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 2 Jan after | 28.0 °C | 16 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 3 Jan after | 28.5 °C | 16 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 4 Jan after | 28.9 °C | 10 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 5 Jan after | 28.8 °C | 11 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 6 Jan after | 30.2 °C | 15 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 7 Jan after | 32.2 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 8 Jan after | 32.0 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 9 Jan after | 32.2 °C | 12 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 10 Jan after | 32.0 °C | 12 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 11 Jan after | 31.3 °C | 15 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
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 · 95Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 7,155 haMaru29 December 2025 · 12 days · 13 km away
- 16,590 haMaru23 January 2020 · 18 days · 15 km away
- 15,860 haMaru25 December 2017 · 13 days · 18 km away
- 7,194 haMaru30 December 2025 · 13 days · 21 km away
- 6,763 haMariga31 December 2025 · 13 days · 35 km away
- 14,143 haMaru25 December 2017 · 18 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Maru fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 December 2017 and 1 January 2018: 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 2,778 hectares (27.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Maru (2,791 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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.