Bulen fire, 20 March 2017 Bulen
The fire started on 20 March 2017 in Bulen, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,105 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 54th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 699 with a page). Number 24 in Ethiopia in 2017, of 266.
- Burnt area
- 8,105ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 20 Mar 2017 – 22 Mar 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 20 Mar
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 283
- in a single hotspot: 125 MW
- Danger at start
- 56
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.6GW
- 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 31 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
62% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,093 ha in 2016.
- 4,434 ha Bulen fire, January 2016 5,157 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 352 ha Dangura fire, February 2016 89,959 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 146 ha Bulen fire, January 2016 4,299 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 82 ha Bulen fire, February 2016 11,694 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bulen where it started8,164 ha reached on 20 Mar2.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Mar | 37.0 °C | 10 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 21 Mar | 38.5 °C | 9 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 22 Mar | 37.5 °C | 20 % | 28 km/h | 0.6 mm | Very high 42 |
| 23 Mar after | 38.3 °C | 9 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 24 Mar after | 39.8 °C | 2 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 25 Mar after | 38.5 °C | 8 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 26 Mar after | 36.5 °C | 10 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 27 Mar after | 37.7 °C | 8 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 28 Mar after | 38.4 °C | 8 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 29 Mar after | 37.6 °C | 8 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 30 Mar after | 37.5 °C | 5 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 31 Mar after | 37.1 °C | 15 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 1 Apr after | 38.5 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
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 · 283Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 92,220 haDangura17 February 2026 · 26 days · 4 km away
- 125,093 haDangura29 January 2020 · 52 days · 17 km away
- 91,996 haBulen26 January 2022 · 53 days · 20 km away
- 39,575 haDangura24 February 2025 · 15 days · 27 km away
- 55,315 haDanguraMarch 2018 · 6 days · 33 km away
- 42,975 haManduraMarch 2021 · 9 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bulen fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 March 2017 and 22 March 2017: 3 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 8,105 hectares (81.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Bulen (8,164 ha, 2.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.