Bulen fire, 16 January 2019 Bulen, Dangura, Mandura
The fire started on 16 January 2019 in Bulen, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,586 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 16th largest in Beneshangul Gumu since 2016 (of 699 with a page). Number 11 in Ethiopia in 2019, of 220.
- Burnt area
- 13,586ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 12days
- 16 Jan 2019 – 27 Jan 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- districts
- Started on
- 16 Jan
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 336
- in a single hotspot: 171 MW
- Danger at start
- 42
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.5GW
- 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: 7,436 ha in 2016, 6,209 ha in 2017, 5,006 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,739 ha that had burned before.
- 7,217 ha Dangura fire, February 2016 89,959 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,557 ha Bulen fire, January 2018 7,324 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,453 ha Dangura fire, February 2017 39,054 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,007 ha Bulen fire, February 2017 2,819 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 176 ha Dangura fire, January 2016 2,955 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 158 ha Dangura fire, January 2017 8,780 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 83 ha Mandura fire, February 2017 33,850 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 27 ha Dangura fire, March 2016 2,051 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bulen where it started12,418 ha reached on 16 Jan4.1 %
-
961 ha reached on 18 Jan0.2 %
-
308 ha reached on 19 Jan0.3 %
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 | 37.0 °C | 15 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 17 Jan | 35.7 °C | 22 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 18 Jan | 35.2 °C | 22 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 19 Jan | 35.7 °C | 18 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 20 Jan | 36.1 °C | 15 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 21 Jan | 36.0 °C | 14 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 22 Jan | 37.3 °C | 15 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 23 Jan | 37.1 °C | 16 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 24 Jan | 37.0 °C | 15 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 25 Jan | 37.9 °C | 19 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 26 Jan | 38.1 °C | 16 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 27 Jan | 38.2 °C | 16 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 28 Jan after | 38.2 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 29 Jan after | 38.0 °C | 16 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 30 Jan after | 35.2 °C | 24 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 31 Jan after | 36.7 °C | 18 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 1 Feb after | 38.4 °C | 12 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 2 Feb after | 37.2 °C | 14 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 3 Feb after | 37.3 °C | 14 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 4 Feb after | 37.7 °C | 15 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 5 Feb after | 38.2 °C | 13 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 6 Feb after | 37.9 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
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 · 336Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 125,093 haDangura29 January 2020 · 52 days · 2 km away
- 91,996 haBulen26 January 2022 · 53 days · 6 km away
- 92,220 haDangura17 February 2026 · 26 days · 15 km away
- 89,959 haDangura15 February 2016 · 23 days · 21 km away
- 55,315 haDanguraMarch 2018 · 6 days · 24 km away
- 55,089 haMandura25 February 2024 · 15 days · 24 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bulen fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 January 2019 and 27 January 2019: 12 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 13,586 hectares (135.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Bulen (12,418 ha, 4.1 %); Dangura (961 ha, 0.2 %); Mandura (308 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 26 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.