Maru fire, 11 December 2021 Maru, Wasagu-Danko
The fire started on 11 December 2021 in Maru, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,955 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 96th largest in Zamfara since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 101 in Nigeria in 2021, of 184.
- Burnt area
- 2,955ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 11 Dec 2021 – 14 Dec 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 11 Dec
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 83
- in a single hotspot: 57 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 603MW
- 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 48 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 57 ha in 2016, 739 ha in 2017, 426 ha in 2019.
- 403 ha Maru fire, December 2019 2,857 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 201 ha Wasagu-Danko fire, December 2017 4,538 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 57 ha Maru fire, December 2016 5,081 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 23 ha Maru fire, January 2019 2,616 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4 ha Maru fire, December 2017 15,860 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Maru where it started2,961 ha reached on 11 Dec0.4 %
-
9 ha0.0 %
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 Dec | 34.3 °C | 17 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 12 Dec | 34.0 °C | 18 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 13 Dec | 34.9 °C | 19 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 14 Dec | 33.8 °C | 15 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 15 Dec after | 32.1 °C | 19 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 16 Dec after | 31.6 °C | 18 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 17 Dec after | 30.7 °C | 20 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 18 Dec after | 29.3 °C | 20 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 19 Dec after | 29.2 °C | 22 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 20 Dec after | 30.1 °C | 20 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 21 Dec after | 30.8 °C | 20 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 22 Dec after | 32.0 °C | 21 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 23 Dec after | 32.3 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 24 Dec after | 33.5 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
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 · 83Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Maru fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 December 2021 and 14 December 2021: 4 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 2,955 hectares (29.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Maru (2,961 ha, 0.4 %); Wasagu-Danko (9 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, class Very high.
- 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.