Bulen fire, March 2016 Bulen
The fire started on 23 March 2016 in Bulen, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,750 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 396th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 699 with a page). Number 184 in Ethiopia in 2016, of 309.
- Burnt area
- 2,750ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 23 Mar 2016 – 28 Mar 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 23 Mar
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 68
- in a single hotspot: 101 MW
- Danger at start
- 55
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 197MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Bulen where it started2,769 ha reached on 23 Mar0.9 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Mar | 37.1 °C | 8 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 24 Mar | 37.5 °C | 6 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 25 Mar | 36.3 °C | 17 % | 27 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 45 |
| 26 Mar | 36.9 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 27 Mar | 36.5 °C | 13 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 28 Mar | 38.2 °C | 10 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 29 Mar after | 38.8 °C | 13 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 30 Mar after | 37.8 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 31 Mar after | 37.5 °C | 12 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 1 Apr after | 37.8 °C | 8 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 2 Apr after | 35.6 °C | 11 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 3 Apr after | 32.6 °C | 17 % | 30 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very high 48 |
| 4 Apr after | 36.7 °C | 4 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 5 Apr after | 35.9 °C | 15 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 6 Apr after | 37.7 °C | 7 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 7 Apr after | 37.5 °C | 5 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
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.
Detections table · 68Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 33,850 haMandura23 February 2017 · 7 days · 14 km away
- 39,575 haDangura24 February 2025 · 15 days · 23 km away
- 92,220 haDangura17 February 2026 · 26 days · 28 km away
- 125,093 haDangura29 January 2020 · 52 days · 37 km away
- 42,975 haManduraMarch 2021 · 9 days · 37 km away
- 55,315 haDanguraMarch 2018 · 6 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bulen fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 March 2016 and 28 March 2016: 6 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 2,750 hectares (27.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Bulen (2,769 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 41 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 Ethiopia (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.
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 ADM3 (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.