How long did the Bejuma fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 March 2024 and 8 March 2024: 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 2,469 hectares (24.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bejuma (1,828 ha, 3.3 %); Falcón (655 ha, 1.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class High.

Where does this data come from?

From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Venezuela (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

VE · Venezuela · 2024-03-01 → 2024-03-08

Bejuma fire, 1 March 2024 Bejuma, Falcón

Out · last detection 8 Mar 2024, 06:47 UTC

The fire started on 1 March 2024 in Bejuma, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,469 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Carabobo since 2016 (of 18 with a page). Number 189 in Venezuela in 2024, of 482.

Burnt area: 2,469ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 8days; 1 Mar 2024 – 8 Mar 2024
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 1 Mar; 2024
Heat detections: 83; in a single hotspot: 71 MW
Danger at start: 30; High · FWI index
Energy released: 964MW; sum of detected power

Play back 8 Mar 2024

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Mar8 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

123568

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

The weather it burned in

35°high

50km/h · peak gust

22%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

72% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 596 ha in 2016, 1,186 ha in 2020.

1,186 ha Falcón fire, March 2020 7,646 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Bejuma where it started

1,828 ha reached on 1 Mar

3.3 %
Falcón 97,687 inhabitants

655 ha reached on 2 Mar

1.0 %

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.

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)
27 Feb	31.2 °C	34 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
28 Feb	31.9 °C	30 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
29 Feb	32.4 °C	26 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
1 Mar	32.4 °C	31 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
2 Mar	30.8 °C	37 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
3 Mar	31.4 °C	33 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
4 Mar	32.7 °C	28 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
5 Mar	33.7 °C	26 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
6 Mar	32.3 °C	31 %	35 km/h	0.2 mm	High 29
7 Mar	33.7 °C	30 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
8 Mar	33.5 °C	30 %	40 km/h	0.2 mm	High 31
9 Mar after	33.4 °C	24 %	38 km/h	0.3 mm	High 31
10 Mar after	33.1 °C	27 %	37 km/h	0.1 mm	High 30
11 Mar after	33.8 °C	26 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
12 Mar after	34.7 °C	24 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
13 Mar after	35.0 °C	23 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
14 Mar after	34.6 °C	22 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
15 Mar after	34.8 °C	26 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
16 Mar after	33.9 °C	31 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
17 Mar after	34.9 °C	28 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
18 Mar after	34.0 °C	26 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
19 Mar after	33.7 °C	30 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
20 Mar after	34.6 °C	26 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
21 Mar after	34.4 °C	29 %	44 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 42
22 Mar after	34.2 °C	26 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
23 Mar after	34.4 °C	24 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
24 Mar after	35.5 °C	19 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 23 Feb 2024

After · 15 Mar 2024

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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 9 March 2024 the air beside the fire reached 31 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 26: 1.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak31 µg/m³

Days over the guideline5 days

PM1044 µg/m³

Optical depth0.77

WHO 15

28291234567891011

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 83Every 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

All fires in Venezuela ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bejuma fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 March 2024 and 8 March 2024: 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 2,469 hectares (24.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bejuma (1,828 ha, 3.3 %); Falcón (655 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class High.
Where does this data come from?: From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Venezuela (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.

Emergency number: 911

Protección Civil ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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What really happened?

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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 ADM2 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.

Where it burned