Burned area
satellite only1,510ha
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 · –
Bousselam fire, July 2020 بوسلام · Beni Chebana, Bousselam, Ain Lagradj
Out · last detection 28 Jul 2020, 13:27 UTC
The fire started on 26 July 2020 in Bousselam, Algeria, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,510 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 5 municipalities.
It is the 15th largest in Bejaia since 2016 (of 101 with a page). Number 8 in Algeria in 2020, of 236.
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
satellite only3days
26 Jul 2020 to 28 Jul 2020: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 28 Jul 2020, 13:27 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only26 Jul 2020
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 26 Jul 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only68
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 37 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 26 Jul 2020 – 28 Jul 2020
+− 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 only474MW
Total radiative power on 27 July 2020; hotspots that day: 52.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 27 Jul 2020
+− 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
model33.5FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 42.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 26 Jul 2020, 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
model37.4°C · 24% RH
High of 37.4 °C and minimum humidity of 24% on 28 July 2020; gusts of 43 km/h on 28 July 2020.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 26 Jul 2020 – 28 Jul 2020
- 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.
Living inside
model≈ 800people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 6.2 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2020).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
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.
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 GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· 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
- 1,510 ha
- Dates
- 26 Jul 2020 – 28 Jul 2020
- Name
- Bousselam
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/bousselam-2020-07?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 bousselam-2020-07.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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-07-26 | 4 | 107 | 36 | 21.4 | 26 | 9.9 | 32.8 | 0 | 33.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-07-27 | 52 | 474 | 36.5 | 21.4 | 25 | 12.7 | 40.7 | 0 | 37.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-07-28 | 12 | 43 | 37.4 | 21.4 | 24 | 12.8 | 42.8 | 0 | 39.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2020-07-29 | 0 | 0 | 36.2 | 22 | 25 | 11.5 | 36.4 | 0 | 38.3 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2020-07-30 | 0 | 0 | 36.7 | 21.4 | 25 | 10.5 | 31.7 | 0 | 37.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-07-31 | 0 | 0 | 37.3 | 21.7 | 20 | 10.8 | 31.3 | 0 | 40.4 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2020-08-01 | 0 | 0 | 34.8 | 21.3 | 33 | 9.8 | 31.3 | 0 | 35.6 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-08-02 | 0 | 0 | 36.1 | 22.1 | 24 | 9.5 | 32 | 0 | 36 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-08-03 | 0 | 0 | 33.9 | 22 | 40 | 8.7 | 39.6 | 1.1 | 21.4 | 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
- 1,510ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 3days
- 26 Jul 2020 – 28 Jul 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 5
- communes
- Started on
- 26 Jul
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 68
- in a single hotspot: 37 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 208MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
26 Jul28 Jul
28 Jul 2020
How it evolved, day by day
26 Jul
27 Jul
28 Jul
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
37°high
43km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity
It had gone 42 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 3 Aug.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
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
-
1,167 ha reached on 27 Jul21 %
-
328 ha reached on 26 Jul5.5 %
-
13 ha0.2 %
-
3 ha0.0 %
-
1 ha reached on 27 Jul0.0 %
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
- Mixed forest75 %
- Other natural land23 %
- Broadleaved forest1.5 %
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 area6.2 ha
Residents≈ 800
Inside the perimeter there were about 6.2 hectares of built-up land and about 800 residents (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
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Jul | 36.0 °C | 26 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 27 Jul | 36.5 °C | 25 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 28 Jul | 37.4 °C | 24 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 29 Jul after | 36.2 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 30 Jul after | 36.7 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 31 Jul after | 37.3 °C | 20 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 1 Aug after | 34.8 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 2 Aug after | 36.1 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 3 Aug after | 33.9 °C | 40 % | 40 km/h | 1.1 mm | High 21 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 33.5, a minimum humidity of 26% and 42 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 19.
FWI at the start
33.5
Minimum humidity
26 %
Days without rain
42
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Bousselam fire, July 2020
1,510 ha
3 days
FWI 33.5
Min. humidity 26 %
Selma Ben Ziada fire, October 2023
246 ha
2 days
FWI 33.2
Min. humidity 26 %
62 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.0 mm on 28 Oct.
El Ancer fire, July 2017
108 ha
3 days
FWI 33.2
Min. humidity 27 %
117 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Boukhelifa fire, August 2022
542 ha
4 days
FWI 38.1
Min. humidity 28 %
15 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.0 mm on 15 Aug.
Sidi Maarouf fire, August 2020
105 ha
3 days
FWI 34.2
Min. humidity 25 %
125 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.4 mm on 14 Aug.
Boukhelifa fire, August 2021
613 ha
7 days
FWI 34.3
Min. humidity 29 %
25 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.8 mm on 25 Aug.
What happened to them
- 3 days
- median duration
- 274 ha
- median area
- 0 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 2.4 mm
- rain at the end (median; 11 of 19 had it)
It was 5.5 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 3 days, against 3 days.
None of its 19 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 8 of 19, 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 2.4 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
1.1 mmfirst rain
3 Aug6 days after it ended
43km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 28 Jul, and on 3 Aug 1.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 11 of 19, with a median of 2.4 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 · 19 Jul 2020
After · 4 Aug 2020
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.
Detections table · 68Every 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
- 3,720 haBeni Djellil بني جليلJuly 2023 · 6 days · 18 km away
- 6,699 haBoukhelifa بوخليفة10 August 2021 · 7 days · 19 km away
- 3,274 haTichy تيشيAugust 2026 · 3 days · 25 km away
- 9,887 haToudja توجةAugust 2021 · 7 days · 33 km away
- 18,731 haDarguina درقينة19 August 2026 · 13 days · 36 km away
- 14,233 haTaourirt Ighil تاوريرت آغيلJuly 2023 · 8 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bousselam fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 26 July 2020 and 28 July 2020: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,510 hectares (15.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 5 municipalities: Beni Chebana (1,167 ha, 21 %); Bousselam (328 ha, 5.5 %); Ain Lagradj (13 ha, 0.2 %); Draa Kebila (3 ha, 0.0 %); Beni Mouhli (1 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire came within 3.1 km of the centre of Beni Mouhli, 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 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, class Very high.
- 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: 19. Their median duration was 3 days and their median area 274 ha; 0 % went past 1,000 ha. None of its 19 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 8 of 19, 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 2.4 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. 68 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- 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.