How long did the Bejuma fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 March 2024 and 30 March 2024: 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 3,159 hectares (31.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 4 municipalities: Falcón (2,077 ha, 3.1 %); Bejuma (1,064 ha, 1.9 %); Miranda (34 ha, 0.2 %); Libertador (4 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, class Very 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 · 2024-03-22 → 2024-03-30

Bejuma fire, 22 March 2024 Falcón, Bejuma, Miranda

Out · last detection 31 Mar 2024, 17:22 UTC

The fire started on 22 March 2024 in Bejuma, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,159 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Carabobo since 2016 (of 18 with a page). Number 111 in Venezuela in 2024, of 482.

Burnt area: 3,159ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 9days; 22 Mar 2024 – 30 Mar 2024
Municipalities hit: 4; municipalities
Started on: 22 Mar; 2024
Heat detections: 137; in a single hotspot: 33 MW
Danger at start: 38; High · FWI index
Energy released: 742MW; sum of detected power

Play back 31 Mar 2024

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Mar30 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

2223262728293031

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

The weather it burned in

36°high

52km/h · peak gust

19%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 3 Apr.

This area had burned before

60% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,400 ha in 2016, 1,250 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,883 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Falcón 97,687 inhabitants

2,077 ha reached on 15 Mar

3.1 %
Bejuma where it started

1,064 ha reached on 15 Mar

1.9 %
Miranda 29,092 inhabitants

34 ha

0.2 %
Libertador 166,166 inhabitants

4 ha reached on 16 Mar

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.

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)
15 Mar	34.8 °C	26 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
16 Mar	33.9 °C	31 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
17 Mar	34.9 °C	28 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
18 Mar	34.0 °C	26 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
19 Mar	33.7 °C	30 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
20 Mar	34.7 °C	26 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
21 Mar	34.4 °C	29 %	44 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 40
22 Mar	34.2 °C	26 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
23 Mar	34.5 °C	24 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
24 Mar	35.5 °C	19 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
25 Mar	34.3 °C	30 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
26 Mar	32.8 °C	30 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
27 Mar	33.2 °C	33 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
28 Mar	34.2 °C	29 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
29 Mar	33.4 °C	29 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
30 Mar	33.0 °C	27 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
31 Mar after	33.7 °C	27 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
1 Apr after	33.1 °C	34 %	48 km/h	0.3 mm	Very high 41
2 Apr after	30.9 °C	46 %	39 km/h	1.1 mm	Moderate 20
3 Apr after	32.0 °C	41 %	32 km/h	1.7 mm	Moderate 13

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 15 Mar 2024

After · 6 Apr 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 25 March 2024 the air beside the fire reached 68 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 46: 3.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak68 µg/m³

Days over the guideline10 days

PM10102 µg/m³

Optical depth1.83

WHO 15

20212223242526272829303112

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 · 137Every 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 22 March 2024 and 30 March 2024: 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 3,159 hectares (31.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 4 municipalities: Falcón (2,077 ha, 3.1 %); Bejuma (1,064 ha, 1.9 %); Miranda (34 ha, 0.2 %); Libertador (4 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, class Very 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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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.

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