Calamity
highFireCalamity Score: 27

Moderate Wildfire

26d agoMoorreesburgSouth AfricaSource: firms

16 fire pixels detected · FRP: 373 MW · ~2.2 km²

Geographic Context

This fire event occurred near Moorreesburg (approximately 44 km away) in South Africa, an area that experiences a range of natural hazards.

Event Assessment

This event is a significant wildfire detected by satellite with a fire radiative power of 373 MW, suggesting active, intense burning across multiple detection pixels. Calamity.live has classified it as "high" severity with a severity value of 80. The computed Calamity Score is 27 out of 100, suggesting contained impact at this time. The primary scoring components are: intensity (60), historical (30). Data for this event was sourced from firms, one of the 250 scientific monitoring sources aggregated by Calamity.live.

Regional Monitoring Context

South Africa has a documented history of fire events. Wildfire activity in the region is monitored through NASA FIRMS (Fire Information for Resource Management System), which provides near-real-time active fire data from MODIS and VIIRS satellites. Fire behavior is influenced by vegetation type, moisture content, wind patterns, and terrain — all factors that determine whether an initial ignition becomes a major event.

Cascade Risk Analysis

This event may trigger secondary hazards through cascade effects. Cascade detection is an automated process that evaluates how primary disasters can trigger secondary events — for example, earthquakes triggering landslides, or volcanic eruptions causing lahars and pyroclastic flows. These secondary hazards can sometimes pose a greater threat than the initial event, particularly in mountainous terrain or densely populated areas.

Event Data

TypeFire
Severityhigh
Severity Value80
Calamity Score27 / 100
Confidence54%
Coordinates-32.8678, 18.9852
Nearest CityMoorreesburg (44 km)
Impact Tierminor
Timestamp2026-03-18T13:27:00.000Z

Score Breakdown

60
intensity
0
population
0
cascading
30
historical

Technical Details

Brightness367
Frp372.8
PixelCount16
Confidencehigh
Area Km22.24

Cascade Risks

cascade

Safety Information

If a wildfire is approaching: follow evacuation orders immediately. Do not wait to see the fire. Close all windows and doors, remove combustible materials from around your home, and have an emergency go-bag ready. Air quality can deteriorate rapidly even at distance from the fire front — monitor local air quality advisories.

This data is aggregated algorithmically from scientific sources. Not a replacement for official emergency warnings.

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Calamity.live data shows a fire event with CalamityScore 27/100, near Moorreesburg (South Africa), based on data from firms. Source: Calamity.live, a platform aggregating real-time data from 207 scientific monitoring sources.