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Orhionmwon fire, 18 January 2020 Orhionmwon, Iguegben, Ika South

Out · last detection 15 Feb 2020, 12:53 UTC

The fire started on 18 January 2020 in Orhionmwon, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 29 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,162 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 7th largest in Edo since 2016 (of 78 with a page). Number 10 in Nigeria in 2020, of 150.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Orhionmwon · 2016Iguegben · 2023Uhunmwonde · 2021Esan South-East · 2017

Burnt area
7,162ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
29days
18 Jan 2020 – 15 Feb 2020
Municipalities hit
4
local government areas
Started on
18 Jan
2020
Heat detections
333
in a single hotspot: 68 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Average daily power
115MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Jan15 Feb
15 Feb 2020

How it evolved, day by day

19 Jan 2020 · 11 MW · 1 20 Jan 2020 · 13 MW · 2 21 Jan 2020 · 1 MW · 1 24 Jan 2020 · 335 MW · 21 25 Jan 2020 · 526 MW · 45 26 Jan 2020 · 509 MW · 63 27 Jan 2020 · 305 MW · 35 28 Jan 2020 · 53 MW · 12 29 Jan 2020 · 28 MW · 3 30 Jan 2020 · 137 MW · 5 31 Jan 2020 · 124 MW · 14 1 Feb 2020 · 71 MW · 12 2 Feb 2020 · 27 MW · 9 3 Feb 2020 · 94 MW · 2 4 Feb 2020 · 7 MW · 1 5 Feb 2020 · 18 MW · 2 6 Feb 2020 · 5 MW · 3 7 Feb 2020 · 203 MW · 22 8 Feb 2020 · 86 MW · 14 9 Feb 2020 · 12 MW · 3 10 Feb 2020 · 11 MW · 1 11 Feb 2020 · 110 MW · 15 12 Feb 2020 · 7 MW · 5 13 Feb 2020 · 66 MW · 17 14 Feb 2020 · 186 MW · 19 15 Feb 2020 · 57 MW · 6
19 Jan 25 Jan 29 Jan 2 Feb 6 Feb 10 Feb 14 Feb

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
43km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 43 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

62% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,173 ha in 2016, 1,297 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,449 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 4.5% of the area of London (72 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. Orhionmwon where it started
    4,850 ha reached on 19 Jan
    2.0 %
  2. Iguegben
    1,950 ha reached on 20 Jan
    5.2 %
  3. Ika South
    381 ha reached on 21 Jan
    0.9 %
  4. Uhunmwonde
    30 ha
    0.0 %

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.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area18 ha
Residents≈ 3,100

Inside the perimeter there were about 18 hectares of built-up land and about 3,100 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
18 Jan 34.8 °C 26 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Jan 35.0 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Jan 36.0 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Jan 36.4 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Jan 37.2 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Jan 36.0 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Jan 36.2 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Jan 36.5 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Jan 36.4 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Jan 35.9 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
28 Jan 36.9 °C 20 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Jan 36.5 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Jan 36.5 °C 20 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
31 Jan 36.9 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Feb 36.9 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 Feb 36.6 °C 13 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Feb 35.7 °C 20 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
4 Feb 35.7 °C 30 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
5 Feb 35.2 °C 41 % 21 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
6 Feb 37.3 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Feb 36.3 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Feb 37.6 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Feb 37.5 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Feb 36.5 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Feb 37.3 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 Feb 36.4 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 Feb 36.9 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Feb 38.1 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Feb 37.3 °C 25 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Feb after 36.9 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
17 Feb after 38.3 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Feb after 36.4 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
19 Feb after 38.1 °C 30 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Feb after 38.2 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Feb after 38.7 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Feb after 39.5 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Feb after 39.1 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Feb after 39.0 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Feb after 38.1 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Jan 2020
After · 22 Feb 2020

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 · 333Every 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 Nigeria ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Orhionmwon fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 18 January 2020 to 15 February 2020 (29 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 January 2020 to 8 February 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,162 hectares (71.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Orhionmwon (4,850 ha, 2.0 %); Iguegben (1,950 ha, 5.2 %); Ika South (381 ha, 0.9 %); Uhunmwonde (30 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class Extreme.
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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 8 February 2020 → 15 February 2020.
  2. Start date: 21 January 2020 → 18 January 2020.

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. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

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 21 January 2020 to 8 February 2020. 333 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.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

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 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.