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Bulkley-Nechako C fire, August 2024 Bulkley-Nechako C

Out · last detection 7 Sept 2024, 20:57 UTC

The fire started on 9 August 2024 in Bulkley-Nechako C, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 35 days. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 1,426 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single census subdivision.

It is the 282th largest in British Columbia since 2016 (of 343 with a page). Number 259 in Canada in 2024, of 291.

Burnt area
1,426ha
official perimeter (CWFIS)
Duration
35days
9 Aug 2024 – 12 Sept 2024
Census subdivisions hit
1
municipalities
Started on
9 Aug
2024
Heat detections
578
in a single hotspot: 99 MW
Danger at start
17
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
212MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Aug12 Sept
7 Sept 2024

How it evolved, day by day

10 Aug 2024 · 487 MW · 23 11 Aug 2024 · 612 MW · 101 12 Aug 2024 · 460 MW · 123 13 Aug 2024 · 13 MW · 2 14 Aug 2024 · 164 MW · 31 15 Aug 2024 · 8 MW · 1 16 Aug 2024 · 68 MW · 14 17 Aug 2024 · 374 MW · 72 18 Aug 2024 · 695 MW · 90 19 Aug 2024 · 455 MW · 103 20 Aug 2024 · 22 MW · 4 24 Aug 2024 · 14 MW · 3 1 Sept 2024 · 1 MW · 1 3 Sept 2024 · 1 MW · 1 5 Sept 2024 · 1 MW · 2 7 Sept 2024 · 16 MW · 7
10 Aug 14 Aug 18 Aug 1 Sept

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

29°high
54km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.5 mm on 13 Sept.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 0.9% of the area of London (14 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each census subdivision

  1. Bulkley-Nechako C where it started
    1,425 ha reached on 10 Aug
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each census subdivision, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
9 Aug 28.7 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 17
10 Aug 27.4 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
11 Aug 26.4 °C 42 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
12 Aug 24.2 °C 40 % 43 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 20
13 Aug 20.0 °C 49 % 35 km/h 2.6 mm Very low 3
14 Aug 20.2 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
15 Aug 20.0 °C 36 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
16 Aug 18.9 °C 45 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 15
17 Aug 24.5 °C 30 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
18 Aug 24.9 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.3 mm High 22
19 Aug 22.1 °C 39 % 47 km/h 1.7 mm High 24
20 Aug 17.8 °C 67 % 45 km/h 4.0 mm Low 6
21 Aug 15.5 °C 72 % 23 km/h 12.5 mm Very low 0
22 Aug 20.5 °C 51 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
23 Aug 17.4 °C 57 % 23 km/h 1.5 mm Very low 1
24 Aug 18.5 °C 50 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Very low 4
25 Aug 16.3 °C 55 % 36 km/h 4.5 mm Low 8
26 Aug 13.4 °C 80 % 34 km/h 12.7 mm Very low 0
27 Aug 15.6 °C 43 % 54 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 0
28 Aug 18.3 °C 54 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
29 Aug 18.5 °C 45 % 43 km/h 0.2 mm Very low 5
30 Aug 15.3 °C 66 % 28 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 4
31 Aug 22.5 °C 53 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
1 Sept 22.9 °C 45 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
2 Sept 17.8 °C 50 % 34 km/h 4.4 mm Very low 1
3 Sept 15.9 °C 46 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
4 Sept 21.0 °C 43 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
5 Sept 24.2 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
6 Sept 21.6 °C 51 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
7 Sept 21.2 °C 52 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
8 Sept 14.1 °C 84 % 30 km/h 11.7 mm Very low 0
9 Sept 13.6 °C 52 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm Very low 0
10 Sept 17.2 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
11 Sept 16.2 °C 46 % 29 km/h 0.2 mm Very low 1
12 Sept 15.8 °C 50 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
13 Sept after 14.5 °C 74 % 30 km/h 6.5 mm Very low 2

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 16.8, a minimum humidity of 29% and 8 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2017: 15.

FWI at the start 16.8
Minimum humidity 29 %
Days without rain 8
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Bulkley-Nechako C fire, July 2023
1,328 ha 73 days FWI 20.1 Min. humidity 29 % 60 km away, in 2023

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 5.6 mm on 19 Sept.

What happened to them

73 days
median duration
6,384 ha
median area
33 %
went past 10,000 ha
4.2 mm
rain at the end (median; 15 of 15 had it)

It stayed below its twins: 1,426 ha against a median of 6,384 ha. It lasted 35 days, against 73 days.

All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 4.2 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

6.5 mmfirst rain
13 Septthe day after it ended
54km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 12 Sept, and on 13 Sept 6.5 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 15 of 15, with a median of 4.2 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2017.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 2 Aug 2024
After · 19 Sept 2024

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 13 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 362 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 156: 10 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak362 µg/m³
Days over the guideline16 days
PM10518 µg/m³
Optical depth2.28
7 Aug15 Aug23 Aug31 Aug8 Sept
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 578Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Canada

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bulkley-Nechako C fire last?
It burned between 9 August 2024 and 12 September 2024: 35 days, according to the dates recorded by Canada’s CWFIS and the heat detections seen by satellite.
How much area did it burn?
The official perimeter mapped by Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) is 1,426 hectares (14.3 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.
Which census subdivisions burned?
The fire only entered Bulkley-Nechako C (1,425 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.7 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the official burnt perimeter of Canada’s CWFIS (NBAC, Natural Resources Canada) or, for the current season and until NBAC publishes it, the one rebuilt by GWIS (Copernicus); from NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots; and from the administrative boundaries of Canada. It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2017 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 15. Their median duration was 73 days and their median area 6,384 ha; 33 % went past 10,000 ha. All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 4.2 mm.

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.

Emergency number: 911 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 911.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: NBAC (Natural Resources Canada), official.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 578 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

Where this data comes from

The perimeter is official: it comes from the National Burned Area Composite (NBAC) of the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System (CWFIS), Natural Resources Canada, which maps it on satellite imagery and publishes it under the Open Government Licence – Canada. Until NBAC publishes the current season, this year’s fires carry the perimeter rebuilt from heat detections by GWIS (Copernicus, CC BY 4.0), which is approximate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Census subdivision boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). The area per census subdivision is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from official figures.