Maru fire, February 2022 Maru, Birnin Gwari
The fire started on 21 February 2022 in Maru, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,110 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 187th largest in Zamfara since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 112 in Nigeria in 2022, of 125.
The power measured by the satellite is low (13.3 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
- 2,110ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 21 Feb 2022 – 26 Feb 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- local government areas
- Started on
- 21 Feb
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 73
- in a single hotspot: 13 MW
- Energy released
- 298MW
- 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
55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 767 ha in 2017, 479 ha in 2020, 910 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,156 ha that had burned before.
- 556 ha Maru fire, January 2021 3,754 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 445 ha Maru fire, January 2020 3,657 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 429 ha Maru fire, January 2017 2,214 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 84 ha Maru fire, January 2021 2,099 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 38 ha Maru fire, January 2017 4,150 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Maru where it started2,111 ha reached on 19 Feb0.3 %
-
10 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.
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 · 73Every 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 21 February 2022 and 26 February 2022: 6 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 2,110 hectares (21.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Maru (2,111 ha, 0.3 %); Birnin Gwari (10 ha, 0.0 %).
- 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.