Biruaca fire, April 2023 Pedro Camejo, Biruaca
The fire started on 12 April 2023 in Biruaca, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,216 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 135th largest in Apure since 2016 (of 919 with a page). Number 22 in Venezuela in 2023, of 193.
- Burnt area
- 4,216ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 12 Apr 2023 – 20 Apr 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 12 Apr
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 129
- in a single hotspot: 93 MW
- Danger at start
- 42
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 32 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.8 mm on 21 Apr.
This area had burned before
57% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 756 ha in 2020, 2,354 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,421 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
3,536 ha reached on 12 Apr0.2 %
-
713 ha reached on 12 Apr0.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Apr | 38.8 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 13 Apr | 38.9 °C | 24 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 14 Apr | 38.5 °C | 24 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 15 Apr | 38.4 °C | 20 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 16 Apr | 38.2 °C | 28 % | 42 km/h | 0.2 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 17 Apr | 36.7 °C | 33 % | 28 km/h | 1.8 mm | High 23 |
| 18 Apr | 38.6 °C | 30 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 19 Apr | 38.9 °C | 26 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 20 Apr | 34.8 °C | 37 % | 43 km/h | 8.2 mm | Low 10 |
| 21 Apr after | 34.0 °C | 51 % | 29 km/h | 3.8 mm | Low 6 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 23 April 2023 the air beside the fire reached 109 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 78: 5.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 129Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Biruaca fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 April 2023 and 20 April 2023: 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 4,216 hectares (42.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pedro Camejo (3,536 ha, 0.2 %); Biruaca (713 ha, 0.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.
Report an error
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.