Minbya fire, 1 April 2026 Minbya
The fire started on 1 April 2026 in Minbya, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,948 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 12th largest in Rakhine since 2016 (of 56 with a page). Number 115 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2026, of 418.
- Burnt area
- 4,948ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 1 Apr 2026 – 8 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 1 Apr
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 95
- in a single hotspot: 277 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.7GW
- 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 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
36% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,069 ha in 2019, 1,171 ha in 2020, 904 ha in 2021, 5 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,806 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Minbya where it started4,975 ha reached on 1 Apr1.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Apr | 34.5 °C | 32 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 2 Apr | 36.0 °C | 29 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 3 Apr | 37.1 °C | 24 % | 52 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 42 |
| 4 Apr | 35.5 °C | 34 % | 50 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 40 |
| 5 Apr | 33.3 °C | 43 % | 51 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 34 |
| 6 Apr | 33.7 °C | 43 % | 48 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 32 |
| 7 Apr | 33.1 °C | 33 % | 48 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 32 |
| 8 Apr | 31.9 °C | 37 % | 48 km/h | 1.1 mm | High 25 |
| 9 Apr after | 31.1 °C | 40 % | 49 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 28 |
| 10 Apr after | 32.7 °C | 37 % | 48 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 30 |
| 11 Apr after | 32.5 °C | 27 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 12 Apr after | 34.6 °C | 27 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 13 Apr after | 36.3 °C | 24 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 14 Apr after | 34.6 °C | 36 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 15 Apr after | 34.0 °C | 41 % | 52 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 36 |
| 16 Apr after | 35.6 °C | 33 % | 44 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 35 |
| 17 Apr after | 34.5 °C | 41 % | 40 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 34 |
| 18 Apr after | 35.2 °C | 40 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 1 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 79 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 53: 3.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
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
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Minbya fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 April 2026 and 8 April 2026: 8 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 4,948 hectares (49.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Minbya (4,975 ha, 1.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Myanmar (Burma) (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.
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 ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (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.