Ye-U fire, March 2025 Ye-U, Taze
The fire started on 20 March 2025 in Ye-U, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,043 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 22th largest in Saigang since 2016 (of 98 with a page). Number 39 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2025, of 123.
The power measured by the satellite is low (27.6 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
- 4,043ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 20 Mar 2025 – 28 Mar 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 20 Mar
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 193
- in a single hotspot: 28 MW
- Danger at start
- 43
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 820MW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 7 Apr.
This area had burned before
89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,301 ha in 2017, 802 ha in 2018, 2,025 ha in 2019, 2,078 ha in 2020, 2,073 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,585 ha that had burned before.
- 2,301 ha Ye-U fire, April 2017 4,089 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,078 ha Ye-U fire, March 2020 5,411 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,110 ha Ye-U fire, March 2019 3,440 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Ye-U where it started3,711 ha reached on 18 Mar2.6 %
-
355 ha reached on 19 Mar0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Mar | 37.7 °C | 22 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 21 Mar | 35.3 °C | 30 % | 26 km/h | 1.1 mm | High 32 |
| 22 Mar | 35.6 °C | 32 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 23 Mar | 35.5 °C | 32 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 24 Mar | 35.4 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 25 Mar | 35.8 °C | 25 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 26 Mar | 37.6 °C | 21 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 27 Mar | 37.1 °C | 26 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 28 Mar | 37.8 °C | 19 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 29 Mar after | 40.0 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 30 Mar after | 40.2 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 31 Mar after | 39.8 °C | 15 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 1 Apr after | 40.2 °C | 13 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 2 Apr after | 39.3 °C | 24 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 3 Apr after | 39.5 °C | 25 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 4 Apr after | 39.1 °C | 27 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 5 Apr after | 37.8 °C | 29 % | 24 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 38 |
| 6 Apr after | 36.6 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 42 |
| 7 Apr after | 36.6 °C | 35 % | 38 km/h | 1.2 mm | High 32 |
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 28 March 2025 the air beside the fire reached 125 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 91: 6.1 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 · 193Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ye-U fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 March 2025 and 28 March 2025: 9 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 4,043 hectares (40.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ye-U (3,711 ha, 2.6 %); Taze (355 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 37 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.