Mindat fire, 24 March 2026 Mindat
The fire started on 24 March 2026 in Mindat, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,703 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 146th largest in Chin since 2016 (of 244 with a page). Number 259 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2026, of 418.
- Burnt area
- 2,703ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 24 Mar 2026 – 2 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 24 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 41
- in a single hotspot: 64 MW
- Danger at start
- 5
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 508MW
- 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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 9.9 mm on 7 Apr.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 753 ha in 2017, 940 ha in 2018, 1,313 ha in 2019, 725 ha in 2020, 2,258 ha in 2021, 509 ha in 2023, 1,444 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,689 ha that had burned before.
- 2,221 ha Mindat fire, March 2021 4,631 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 860 ha Mindat fire, March 2019 2,376 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 509 ha Mindat fire, April 2023 2,214 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mindat where it started2,716 ha reached on 24 Mar0.8 %
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 Mar | 29.3 °C | 46 % | 22 km/h | 1.4 mm | Low 5 |
| 25 Mar | 31.5 °C | 37 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 26 Mar | 31.7 °C | 39 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 27 Mar | 31.7 °C | 41 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 28 Mar | 30.8 °C | 35 % | 29 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 29 Mar | 30.6 °C | 38 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 30 Mar | 31.4 °C | 37 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 31 Mar | 32.1 °C | 41 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 1 Apr | 31.3 °C | 37 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 2 Apr | 35.1 °C | 31 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 3 Apr after | 35.0 °C | 33 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 4 Apr after | 34.1 °C | 35 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 5 Apr after | 34.5 °C | 38 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 6 Apr after | 32.5 °C | 41 % | 23 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 7 Apr after | 31.1 °C | 35 % | 24 km/h | 9.9 mm | Very low 3 |
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 31 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 76 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 62: 4.1 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 · 41Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,884 haMindat16 March 2019 · 16 days · 11 km away
- 5,546 haSaw24 February 2021 · 10 days · 26 km away
- 8,843 haTilin20 February 2026 · 20 days · 28 km away
- 17,976 haSaw1 March 2026 · 20 days · 30 km away
- 5,940 haPauk26 February 2026 · 16 days · 32 km away
- 7,905 haKanpetlet7 April 2023 · 15 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mindat fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 March 2026 and 2 April 2026: 10 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 2,703 hectares (27.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mindat (2,716 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 20, class Moderate.
- 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.