Mindon fire, 22 March 2026 Mindon
The fire started on 22 March 2026 in Mindon, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,451 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 44th largest in Magway since 2016 (of 189 with a page). Number 133 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2026, of 418.
- Burnt area
- 4,451ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 22 Mar 2026 – 31 Mar 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 22 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 118
- in a single hotspot: 135 MW
- Danger at start
- 41
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.3GW
- 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 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 8 Apr.
This area had burned before
71% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,301 ha in 2016, 166 ha in 2017, 416 ha in 2020, 652 ha in 2021, 854 ha in 2022, 487 ha in 2023, 313 ha in 2024, 1,058 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,157 ha that had burned before.
- 646 ha Mindon fire, March 2025 2,008 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 357 ha Mindon fire, March 2025 2,082 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 166 ha Mindon fire, March 2017 2,106 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mindon where it started4,475 ha reached on 15 Mar1.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Mar | 36.5 °C | 31 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 23 Mar | 36.6 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 24 Mar | 36.9 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 25 Mar | 38.4 °C | 26 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 26 Mar | 38.4 °C | 30 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 27 Mar | 39.2 °C | 29 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 28 Mar | 38.4 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 29 Mar | 37.3 °C | 35 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 30 Mar | 39.1 °C | 30 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 31 Mar | 39.0 °C | 35 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 39 |
| 1 Apr after | 39.2 °C | 31 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 2 Apr after | 39.7 °C | 34 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 3 Apr after | 40.4 °C | 33 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 4 Apr after | 39.5 °C | 37 % | 32 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 40 |
| 5 Apr after | 37.3 °C | 44 % | 40 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 36 |
| 6 Apr after | 38.0 °C | 42 % | 43 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very high 39 |
| 7 Apr after | 35.5 °C | 45 % | 35 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 34 |
| 8 Apr after | 34.5 °C | 48 % | 32 km/h | 1.1 mm | High 23 |
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 26 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 65 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 54: 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 · 118Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,106 haMindonFebruary 2017 · 10 days · 18 km away
- 8,345 haMinhla10 March 2026 · 14 days · 19 km away
- 6,737 haMindon26 February 2026 · 24 days · 25 km away
- 6,098 haMindon26 February 2026 · 9 days · 28 km away
- 11,923 haMindonFebruary 2025 · 9 days · 30 km away
- 16,664 haSinbaungweFebruary 2026 · 16 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mindon fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 March 2026 and 31 March 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 4,451 hectares (44.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mindon (4,475 ha, 1.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.