Sidoktaya fire, March 2023 Kanpetlet, Saw, Sidoktaya
The fire started on 26 March 2023 in Sidoktaya, Myanmar, and satellites saw it burning for 37 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 54,708 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 2th largest in Magway since 2016 (of 190 with a page). Number 3 in Myanmar in 2023, of 240.
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- Burnt area
- 54,708ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 37days
- 26 Mar 2023 – 1 May 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 26 Mar
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 2,676
- in a single hotspot: 202 MW
- Danger at start
- 31
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 526MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 2 May.
This area had burned before
81% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 14,341 ha in 2016, 15,598 ha in 2017, 6,036 ha in 2018, 23,897 ha in 2019, 28,156 ha in 2020, 17,576 ha in 2021, 9,314 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 44,108 ha that had burned before.
- 16,450 ha Kanpetlet fire, March 2020 24,764 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 12,372 ha Sidoktaya fire, March 2019 29,536 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,207 ha Sidoktaya fire, March 2017 16,167 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,842 ha Kanpetlet fire, April 2016 7,201 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,247 ha Kanpetlet fire, March 2020 18,538 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,554 ha Saw fire, February 2021 17,092 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,166 ha Kanpetlet fire, February 2021 19,378 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,103 ha Kanpetlet fire, April 2016 3,642 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
51,170 ha reached on 27 Mar20 %
-
2,660 ha reached on 26 Mar1.5 %
-
Sidoktaya where it started1,162 ha reached on 26 Mar0.4 %
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 2025Inside the perimeter there were about 0.15 hectares of built-up land and about 300 residents (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Mar | 34.7 °C | 25 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 27 Mar | 33.9 °C | 28 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 28 Mar | 32.3 °C | 38 % | 41 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 30 |
| 29 Mar | 33.1 °C | 29 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 30 Mar | 33.7 °C | 28 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 31 Mar | 34.0 °C | 29 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 1 Apr | 29.9 °C | 42 % | 46 km/h | 2.7 mm | Low 9 |
| 2 Apr | 27.1 °C | 49 % | 44 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 3 Apr | 29.4 °C | 39 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 4 Apr | 33.7 °C | 24 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 5 Apr | 33.9 °C | 29 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 6 Apr | 35.6 °C | 27 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 7 Apr | 36.5 °C | 22 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 8 Apr | 37.2 °C | 23 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 9 Apr | 37.4 °C | 21 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 10 Apr | 37.7 °C | 22 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 11 Apr | 37.0 °C | 27 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 12 Apr | 37.1 °C | 23 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 13 Apr | 36.6 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 14 Apr | 38.6 °C | 21 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 15 Apr | 38.3 °C | 25 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 16 Apr | 36.7 °C | 29 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 17 Apr | 36.3 °C | 37 % | 39 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 33 |
| 18 Apr | 37.7 °C | 27 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 19 Apr | 36.2 °C | 34 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 20 Apr | 37.1 °C | 34 % | 45 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 36 |
| 21 Apr | 34.6 °C | 41 % | 40 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 22 Apr | 35.4 °C | 24 % | 52 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 37 |
| 23 Apr | 35.1 °C | 29 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 24 Apr | 33.9 °C | 33 % | 38 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 34 |
| 25 Apr | 35.9 °C | 30 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 26 Apr | 37.7 °C | 25 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 27 Apr | 37.9 °C | 24 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 28 Apr | 37.8 °C | 27 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 29 Apr | 38.1 °C | 26 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 30 Apr | 37.5 °C | 27 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 1 May | 36.6 °C | 30 % | 47 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very high 40 |
| 2 May after | 33.1 °C | 33 % | 42 km/h | 1.0 mm | High 25 |
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 12 April 2023 the air beside the fire reached 186 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 97: 6.5 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 · 2,676Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 17,031 haKanpetletMarch 2024 · 23 days · 22 km away
- 24,764 haKanpetlet20 March 2020 · 30 days · 23 km away
- 19,991 haKanpetlet7 March 2025 · 30 days · 24 km away
- 19,378 haKanpetletFebruary 2021 · 38 days · 25 km away
- 17,092 haSaw21 February 2021 · 32 days · 27 km away
- 18,538 haKanpetlet9 March 2020 · 40 days · 28 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sidoktaya fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 26 March 2023 to 1 May 2023 (37 days). The perimeter dates it from 1 April 2023 to 29 April 2023.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 54,708 hectares (547.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Kanpetlet (51,170 ha, 20 %); Saw (2,660 ha, 1.5 %); Sidoktaya (1,162 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 29 April 2023 → 1 May 2023.
- Start date: 1 April 2023 → 26 March 2023.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 6 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 1 April 2023 to 29 April 2023. 2,676 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 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.