Bulen fire, 23 March 2017 Bulen
The fire started on 23 March 2017 in Bulen, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,816 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 379th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 699 with a page). Number 164 in Ethiopia in 2017, of 266.
The power measured by the satellite is low (12.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 2,816ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 23 Mar 2017 – 25 Mar 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 23 Mar
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 68
- in a single hotspot: 12 MW
- Danger at start
- 48
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 290MW
- 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 34 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,136 ha in 2016.
What happened to each town
-
Bulen where it started2,834 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 | 35.0 °C | 8 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 24 Mar | 36.5 °C | 2 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 25 Mar | 35.2 °C | 8 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 26 Mar after | 33.2 °C | 10 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 27 Mar after | 34.4 °C | 8 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 28 Mar after | 35.1 °C | 7 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 29 Mar after | 34.3 °C | 7 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 30 Mar after | 34.2 °C | 4 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 31 Mar after | 33.8 °C | 15 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 1 Apr after | 35.2 °C | 15 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 2 Apr after | 34.1 °C | 17 % | 33 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 50 |
| 3 Apr after | 35.0 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 47 |
| 4 Apr after | 35.2 °C | 16 % | 27 km/h | 0.5 mm | Very high 46 |
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
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bulen fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 March 2017 and 25 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 2,816 hectares (28.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Bulen (2,834 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 2 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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.