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Tilin fire, February 2017 Tilin, Gangaw, Matupi

Out · last detection 28 Feb 2017, 07:40 UTC

The fire started on 20 February 2017 in Tilin, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,001 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 189th largest in Magway since 2016 (of 189 with a page). Number 118 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2017, of 118.

The power measured by the satellite is low (17.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,001ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
20 Feb 2017 – 27 Feb 2017
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
20 Feb
2017
Heat detections
82
in a single hotspot: 18 MW
Energy released
227MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Feb 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Feb27 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

202122232425262728

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

This area had burned before

10% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 195 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Tilin where it started
    1,751 ha reached on 19 Feb
    1.3 %
  2. Gangaw
    224 ha reached on 20 Feb
    0.1 %
  3. Matupi
    37 ha reached on 25 Feb
    0.0 %

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.

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Feb 2017
After · 6 Mar 2017

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 · 82Every 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 (Burma) ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Tilin fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 February 2017 and 27 February 2017: 8 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 2,001 hectares (20.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Tilin (1,751 ha, 1.3 %); Gangaw (224 ha, 0.1 %); Matupi (37 ha, 0.0 %).
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.

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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.