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VE · Venezuela · →

Biruaca fire, March 2020 Biruaca, San Fernando, Pedro Camejo

Out · last detection 21 Mar 2020, 17:01 UTC

The fire started on 15 March 2020 in Biruaca, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,803 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 301th largest in Apure since 2016 (of 919 with a page). Number 116 in Venezuela in 2020, of 402.

Burnt area
2,803ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
15 Mar 2020 – 21 Mar 2020
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
15 Mar
2020
Heat detections
127
in a single hotspot: 201 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Mar 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Mar21 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

15161718192021

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
53km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 9.3 mm on 2 Apr.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Biruaca 54,323 inhabitants where it started
    2,819 ha reached on 11 Mar
    2.7 %
  2. San Fernando 165,135 inhabitants
    2 ha
    0.0 %
  3. Pedro Camejo
    0 ha
    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)
11 Mar 39.2 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Mar 38.8 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Mar 40.0 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Mar 39.1 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Mar 37.9 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Mar 38.5 °C 21 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Mar 37.8 °C 24 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
18 Mar 37.7 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Mar 37.4 °C 25 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
20 Mar 38.1 °C 22 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Mar 38.4 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Mar after 37.8 °C 27 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
23 Mar after 38.3 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Mar after 38.7 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Mar after 39.6 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 50
26 Mar after 40.0 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
27 Mar after 38.8 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Mar after 39.2 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Mar after 38.1 °C 28 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
30 Mar after 39.3 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
31 Mar after 35.8 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Apr after 38.4 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 Apr after 32.6 °C 55 % 33 km/h 9.3 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Mar 2020
After · 28 Mar 2020

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 127Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Venezuela ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Biruaca fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 March 2020 and 21 March 2020: 7 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 2,803 hectares (28.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Biruaca (2,819 ha, 2.7 %); San Fernando (2 ha, 0.0 %); Pedro Camejo (0 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.0 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, class Extreme.
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

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.

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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.