How long did the Stikine Region fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 30 July 2018 to 24 August 2018 (26 days). The perimeter dates it from 30 July 2018 to 23 August 2018.

How much area did it burn?

The official perimeter mapped by Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) is 54,917 hectares (549.2 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.

Which census subdivisions burned?

The fire entered 3 census subdivisions: Stikine Region (57,497 ha, 0.5 %); Liard River 3 (155 ha, 43 %); Lower Post (1 ha, 2.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 29.0 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 68 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class High.

Where does this data come from?

From the official burnt perimeter of Canada’s CWFIS (NBAC, Natural Resources Canada) or, for the current season and until NBAC publishes it, the one rebuilt by GWIS (Copernicus); from NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots; and from the administrative boundaries of Canada. It is not an official report.

CA · Canada · 2018-07-30 → 2018-08-24

Stikine Region fire, 30 July 2018 Stikine Region, Liard River 3, Lower Post

Out · last detection 24 Aug 2018, 12:08 UTC

The fire started on 30 July 2018 in Stikine Region, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 54,917 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 census subdivisions.

It is the 29th largest in British Columbia since 2016 (of 448 with a page). Number 7 in Canada in 2018, of 212.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Stikine Region · 2019

Burnt area: 54,917ha; official perimeter (CWFIS)
Duration: 26days; 30 Jul 2018 – 24 Aug 2018
Census subdivisions hit: 3; municipalities
Started on: 30 Jul; 2018
Heat detections: 9,828; in a single hotspot: 971 MW
Danger at start: 19; Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power: 5.6GW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Jul24 Aug

Play back 24 Aug 2018

How it evolved, day by day

4 Aug 13 Aug 16 Aug 19 Aug 22 Aug

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

The weather it burned in

29°high

68km/h · peak gust

18%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.5 mm on 25 Aug.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 35% of the area of London (549 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 census subdivision

Stikine Region where it started

57,497 ha reached on 4 Aug

0.5 %
Liard River 3

155 ha reached on 22 Aug

43 %
Lower Post

1 ha

2.1 %

Burnt area inside each census subdivision, from crossing the official 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 area0.17 ha

Residents≈ 60

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.17 hectares of built-up land and about 60 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)
30 Jul	25.6 °C	43 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
31 Jul	27.9 °C	28 %	18 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 20
1 Aug	29.0 °C	25 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
2 Aug	26.9 °C	28 %	49 km/h	0.2 mm	High 30
3 Aug	22.9 °C	32 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
4 Aug	26.0 °C	32 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
5 Aug	24.6 °C	35 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
6 Aug	22.0 °C	43 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
7 Aug	21.3 °C	47 %	57 km/h	3.9 mm	Low 7
8 Aug	22.2 °C	40 %	46 km/h	0.4 mm	Moderate 13
9 Aug	22.3 °C	37 %	44 km/h	3.3 mm	Very low 5
10 Aug	18.0 °C	38 %	54 km/h	1.3 mm	Low 8
11 Aug	20.1 °C	35 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 11
12 Aug	22.3 °C	32 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
13 Aug	22.1 °C	36 %	58 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
14 Aug	20.6 °C	31 %	68 km/h	1.8 mm	Moderate 12
15 Aug	19.1 °C	30 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
16 Aug	20.5 °C	25 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
17 Aug	17.7 °C	26 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
18 Aug	20.5 °C	20 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
19 Aug	23.0 °C	18 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
20 Aug	26.5 °C	27 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
21 Aug	28.2 °C	22 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
22 Aug	19.2 °C	30 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
23 Aug	17.5 °C	46 %	38 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 21
24 Aug	15.2 °C	48 %	32 km/h	0.8 mm	Moderate 13
25 Aug after	15.8 °C	50 %	49 km/h	5.5 mm	Very low 2

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 23 Jul 2018

After · 31 Aug 2018

Before After

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 · 9,828Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

1,663 haStikine RegionMay 2019 · 5 days · 29 km away

All fires in Canada ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Stikine Region fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 30 July 2018 to 24 August 2018 (26 days). The perimeter dates it from 30 July 2018 to 23 August 2018.
How much area did it burn?: The official perimeter mapped by Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) is 54,917 hectares (549.2 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.
Which census subdivisions burned?: The fire entered 3 census subdivisions: Stikine Region (57,497 ha, 0.5 %); Liard River 3 (155 ha, 43 %); Lower Post (1 ha, 2.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 29.0 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 68 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class High.
Where does this data come from?: From the official burnt perimeter of Canada’s CWFIS (NBAC, Natural Resources Canada) or, for the current season and until NBAC publishes it, the one rebuilt by GWIS (Copernicus); from NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots; and from the administrative boundaries of Canada. 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: 911 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
CWFIS · Interactive map ↗

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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 911.

How we know this

Perimeter: NBAC (Natural Resources Canada), official.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 30 July 2018 to 23 August 2018. 9,828 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 is official: it comes from the National Burned Area Composite (NBAC) of the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System (CWFIS), Natural Resources Canada, which maps it on satellite imagery and publishes it under the Open Government Licence – Canada. Until NBAC publishes the current season, this year’s fires carry the perimeter rebuilt from heat detections by GWIS (Copernicus, CC BY 4.0), which is approximate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Census subdivision boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). The area per census subdivision is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from official figures.

Where it burned