Skip to content
worldfires
en
MM · Myanmar · →

Mindon fire, February 2018 Minhla, Mindon

Out · last detection 16 Mar 2018, 06:55 UTC

The fire started on 28 February 2018 in Mindon, Myanmar, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,276 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 51th largest in Magway since 2016 (of 190 with a page). Number 8 in Myanmar in 2018, of 55.

The power measured by the satellite is low (13.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Minhla · 2017Minhla · 2026Mindon · 2024Mindon · 2025

Burnt area
4,276ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
28 Feb 2018 – 16 Mar 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
28 Feb
2018
Heat detections
180
in a single hotspot: 14 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
37MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Feb16 Mar
16 Mar 2018

How it evolved, day by day

28 Feb 2018 · 3 MW · 3 1 Mar 2018 · 5 MW · 5 2 Mar 2018 · 9 MW · 6 3 Mar 2018 · 8 MW · 2 4 Mar 2018 · 2 MW · 1 5 Mar 2018 · 16 MW · 7 6 Mar 2018 · 20 MW · 7 7 Mar 2018 · 11 MW · 3 8 Mar 2018 · 4 MW · 4 10 Mar 2018 · 34 MW · 8 11 Mar 2018 · 77 MW · 23 12 Mar 2018 · 42 MW · 17 13 Mar 2018 · 65 MW · 20 14 Mar 2018 · 146 MW · 48 15 Mar 2018 · 114 MW · 18 16 Mar 2018 · 36 MW · 8
28 Feb 3 Mar 6 Mar 10 Mar 13 Mar 14 Mar 16 Mar

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

36°high
47km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

41% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,347 ha in 2016, 810 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,756 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.7% of the area of London (43 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Minhla
    2,522 ha reached on 28 Feb
    1.1 %
  2. Mindon where it started
    1,777 ha reached on 2 Mar
    0.7 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area 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)
7 Mar 35.8 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Mar 35.2 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Mar 36.3 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Mar 36.4 °C 16 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Mar 34.9 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 Mar 34.4 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Mar 35.4 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Mar 34.1 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Mar 36.1 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Mar 35.2 °C 29 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
17 Mar after 31.2 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Mar after 37.0 °C 24 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Mar after 34.5 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Mar after 36.2 °C 29 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Mar after 37.1 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Mar after 37.6 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
23 Mar after 37.6 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Mar after 38.0 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Mar after 37.0 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 21 Feb 2018
After · 23 Mar 2018

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 · 180Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Myanmar ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mindon fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 28 February 2018 to 16 March 2018 (17 days). The perimeter dates it from 7 March 2018 to 15 March 2018.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,276 hectares (42.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Minhla (2,522 ha, 1.1 %); Mindon (1,777 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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 (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

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 7 March 2018 to 15 March 2018. 180 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.