Bulen fire, 16 January 2018 Bulen
The fire started on 16 January 2018 in Bulen, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,123 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 174th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 699 with a page). Number 20 in Ethiopia in 2018, of 96.
- Burnt area
- 4,123ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 16 Jan 2018 – 19 Jan 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 16 Jan
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 139
- in a single hotspot: 52 MW
- Danger at start
- 45
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.6GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,137 ha in 2016, 2,941 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,267 ha that had burned before.
- 2,597 ha Mandura fire, February 2017 33,850 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,022 ha Bulen fire, February 2016 11,694 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 344 ha Bulen fire, March 2017 8,105 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 115 ha Bulen fire, January 2016 5,157 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bulen where it started4,153 ha reached on 16 Jan1.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Jan | 33.4 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 17 Jan | 33.3 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 18 Jan | 33.0 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 19 Jan | 32.6 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 20 Jan after | 33.5 °C | 17 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 21 Jan after | 33.7 °C | 18 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 22 Jan after | 33.0 °C | 19 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 23 Jan after | 33.6 °C | 20 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 24 Jan after | 34.5 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 25 Jan after | 32.5 °C | 27 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 26 Jan after | 34.1 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 27 Jan after | 33.8 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 28 Jan after | 33.6 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 29 Jan after | 33.8 °C | 22 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
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 · 139Every 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 · 11 km away
- 125,093 haDangura29 January 2020 · 52 days · 16 km away
- 39,575 haDangura24 February 2025 · 15 days · 19 km away
- 91,996 haBulen26 January 2022 · 53 days · 20 km away
- 55,315 haDanguraMarch 2018 · 6 days · 26 km away
- 42,975 haManduraMarch 2021 · 9 days · 26 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bulen fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 January 2018 and 19 January 2018: 4 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 4,123 hectares (41.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Bulen (4,153 ha, 1.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
- 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.