Burned area
satellite only5,857ha
Perimeter published by EFFIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- perimeter revised on 26 January 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
DZ · Algeria · –
Beni Salah fire, August 2021 Boucheghouf, Medjez Sfa, Chihani
Out · last detection 14 Aug 2021, 12:24 UTC
The fire started on 11 August 2021 in Boucheghouf, Algeria, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 5,857 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 5 municipalities.
It is the 3th largest in Annaba since 2016 (of 50 with a page). Number 7 in Algeria in 2021, of 92.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
matches the official record4days
11 Aug 2021 to 14 Aug 2021: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 14 Aug 2021, 12:24 UTC
+− cross-check
According to the press and agencies we checked, it was declared over on 15 August 2021.
Start
satellite only11 Aug 2021
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 11 Aug 2021
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only224
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 353 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 11 Aug 2021 – 14 Aug 2021
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only7,962MW
Total radiative power on 12 August 2021; hotspots that day: 106.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 12 Aug 2021
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model76.6FWI · very extreme
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 11 Aug 2021, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model42.2°C · 8% RH
High of 42.2 °C and minimum humidity of 8% on 11 August 2021; gusts of 46 km/h on 11 August 2021.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 11 Aug 2021 – 14 Aug 2021
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
-
· reconstructed pressCross-check with press and agencies publishedJournal of Forest Science (Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences) · Vitaminedz (reproduce a Liberte Algerie)
-
· reconstructed perimeterEFFIS (Copernicus) revises the perimeter
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 5,857 ha
- Dates
- 11 Aug 2021 – 14 Aug 2021
- Name
- Beni Salah
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/beni-salah-2021-08?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire beni-salah-2021-08.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-08-11 | 20 | 1,450 | 42.2 | 24.1 | 8 | 15.5 | 46.1 | 0 | 76.6 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2021-08-12 | 106 | 7,962 | 41.1 | 23.2 | 12 | 16.9 | 37.4 | 0 | 73.9 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2021-08-13 | 83 | 2,335 | 38.7 | 22.3 | 17 | 13.7 | 38.5 | 0 | 69.1 | extremo | 1 |
| 2021-08-14 | 15 | 379 | 35.2 | 20.5 | 25 | 15.9 | 38.9 | 0 | 55.4 | extremo | 1 |
| 2021-08-15 | 0 | 0 | 36.3 | 19.5 | 20 | 16.9 | 40 | 0 | 52.4 | extremo | 0 |
| 2021-08-16 | 0 | 0 | 38.1 | 20.8 | 17 | 15.8 | 40 | 0.3 | 48.2 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2021-08-17 | 0 | 0 | 31.6 | 21.1 | 37 | 15.2 | 40.7 | 0 | 37.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2021-08-18 | 0 | 0 | 28.4 | 18.9 | 44 | 14.9 | 38.9 | 0 | 36.4 | alto | 0 |
| 2021-08-19 | 0 | 0 | 32 | 17.8 | 32 | 16.7 | 41.8 | 0 | 33.8 | alto | 0 |
| 2021-08-20 | 0 | 0 | 31.8 | 20 | 40 | 14 | 38.5 | 0 | 35.4 | alto | 0 |
| 2021-08-21 | 0 | 0 | 32.7 | 18.6 | 30 | 14.5 | 39.6 | 0 | 35.3 | alto | 0 |
| 2021-08-22 | 0 | 0 | 33.3 | 16.7 | 21 | 13.7 | 38.5 | 0 | 48.1 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2021-08-23 | 0 | 0 | 35.2 | 17.5 | 18 | 14.8 | 36 | 0 | 46.7 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2021-08-24 | 0 | 0 | 32.8 | 20.9 | 35 | 14.5 | 34.9 | 0 | 48.7 | muy_alto | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: EFFIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 5,857ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 4days
- 11 Aug 2021 – 14 Aug 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 5
- communes
- Started on
- 11 Aug
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 224
- in a single hotspot: 353 MW
- Danger at start
- 77
- Very extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 3.0GW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
11 Aug14 Aug
14 Aug 2021
How it evolved, day by day
11 Aug
12 Aug
13 Aug
14 Aug
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
42°high
46km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
64% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,727 ha in 2017, 15 ha in 2020.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Boucheghouf where it started3,619 ha reached on 11 Aug18 %
-
1,570 ha reached on 13 Aug11 %
-
376 ha reached on 11 Aug1.9 %
-
306 ha reached on 11 Aug1.4 %
-
0 ha0.0 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
What burned
- Other natural land54 %
- Mixed forest45 %
- Agricultural areas0.7 %
Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Built-up area0.14 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there were about 0.14 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
Checked against the press
Checked on 29 September 2026We checked this page against 2 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:
- Also known as
- Beni Salah · Béni Salah · Beni Saleh
- End according to the sources: 15 August 2021
Sources
- Forest fire area detection using Sentinel-2 data: Case of the Beni Salah national forest - Algeria — Journal of Forest Science (Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences), 1 January 2023
- Bouchegouf (Guelma) - Reserve naturelle de Beni Saleh: Les cerfs de Barbarie echappent miraculeusement aux incendies — Vitaminedz (reproduce a Liberte Algerie), 19 August 2021
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)
Started with Extreme FWI: 48 % of the area in Algeria Very dry air: 26 % of the area in Algeria 60 days without rain: 16 % of the area in Algeria
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Aug | 42.2 °C | 8 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 77 |
| 12 Aug | 41.1 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 74 |
| 13 Aug | 38.7 °C | 17 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 14 Aug | 35.2 °C | 25 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 15 Aug after | 36.3 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 16 Aug after | 38.1 °C | 17 % | 40 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 48 |
| 17 Aug after | 31.6 °C | 37 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 18 Aug after | 28.4 °C | 44 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 19 Aug after | 32.0 °C | 32 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 20 Aug after | 31.8 °C | 40 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 21 Aug after | 32.7 °C | 30 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 22 Aug after | 33.3 °C | 21 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 23 Aug after | 35.2 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 24 Aug after | 32.8 °C | 35 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 76.6, a minimum humidity of 8% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 24.
FWI at the start
76.6
Minimum humidity
8 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Beni Salah fire, August 2021
5,857 ha
4 days
FWI 76.6
Min. humidity 8 %
Annaba fire, August 2026
543 ha
11 days
FWI 82.2
Min. humidity 11 %
48 km away, in 2026
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.2 mm on 10 Sept.
Chetaibi fire, August 2026
2,739 ha
3 days
FWI 78.5
Min. humidity 16 %
67 km away, in 2026
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Medjez Sfa fire, August 2022
3,193 ha
2 days
FWI 77.7
Min. humidity 13 %
8 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Azzaba fire, August 2026
5,623 ha
2 days
FWI 73.2
Min. humidity 16 %
78 km away, in 2026
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Hammam Beni Salah fire, August 2022
174 ha
1 day
FWI 79.2
Min. humidity 13 %
15 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 2 days
- median duration
- 372 ha
- median area
- 21 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 1.1 mm
- rain at the end (median; 10 of 24 had it)
It was 15.7 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 4 days, against 2 days.
None of its 24 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 14 of 24, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.1 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
46km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 14 Aug, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 10 of 24, with a median of 1.1 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 4 Aug 2021
After · 21 Aug 2021
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 13 August 2021 the air beside the fire reached 62 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 51: 3.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak62 µg/m³
Days over the guideline9 days
PM10116 µg/m³
WHO 15
9 Aug11 Aug13 Aug15 Aug17 Aug
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 · 224Every 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
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Beni Salah fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 11 August 2021 and 14 August 2021: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 5,857 hectares (58.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 5 municipalities: Boucheghouf (3,619 ha, 18 %); Medjez Sfa (1,570 ha, 11 %); Chihani (376 ha, 1.9 %); Hammam Beni Salah (306 ha, 1.4 %); Mechroha (0 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire came within 4.8 km of the centre of Medjez Sfa, the closest of the areas it touched. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 42.2 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 77, class Very extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Algeria (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 24. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 372 ha; 21 % went past 1,000 ha. None of its 24 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 14 of 24, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.1 mm.
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: 14 · 1021 · Emergency number and official warnings
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 224 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Checked against news and agencies: 2 confirmed sources.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
Where this data comes from
The perimeter and land cover come from the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), measured on MODIS and Sentinel-2 imagery and published under CC BY 4.0. 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-ShareAlike 2.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from each country’s official figure.