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Bulkley-Nechako D fire, 7 July 2017 Bulkley-Nechako D, Bulkley-Nechako E

Out · last detection 13 Aug 2017, 21:09 UTC

The fire started on 7 July 2017 in Bulkley-Nechako D, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 38 days. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 7,626 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 census subdivisions.

It is the 131th largest in British Columbia since 2016 (of 449 with a page). Number 60 in Canada in 2017, of 242.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Bulkley-Nechako D · 2023Cariboo I · 2017Bulkley-Nechako D · 2024Bulkley-Nechako E · 2018

Burnt area
7,626ha
official perimeter (CWFIS)
Duration
38days
7 Jul 2017 – 13 Aug 2017
Census subdivisions hit
2
municipalities
Started on
7 Jul
2017
Heat detections
1,784
in a single hotspot: 186 MW
Danger at start
9
Low · FWI index
Average daily power
603MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Jul13 Aug
13 Aug 2017

How it evolved, day by day

8 Jul 2017 · 32 MW · 11 9 Jul 2017 · 2,097 MW · 30 10 Jul 2017 · 1,599 MW · 122 11 Jul 2017 · 451 MW · 83 12 Jul 2017 · 36 MW · 3 15 Jul 2017 · 140 MW · 10 16 Jul 2017 · 1 MW · 1 17 Jul 2017 · 32 MW · 9 18 Jul 2017 · 81 MW · 16 19 Jul 2017 · 1,801 MW · 94 21 Jul 2017 · 2 MW · 1 23 Jul 2017 · 3 MW · 1 24 Jul 2017 · 158 MW · 17 25 Jul 2017 · 287 MW · 32 26 Jul 2017 · 115 MW · 30 27 Jul 2017 · 99 MW · 12 28 Jul 2017 · 220 MW · 21 29 Jul 2017 · 169 MW · 22 30 Jul 2017 · 270 MW · 27 31 Jul 2017 · 1,257 MW · 58 1 Aug 2017 · 1,677 MW · 228 2 Aug 2017 · 1,020 MW · 73 3 Aug 2017 · 884 MW · 57 4 Aug 2017 · 3,649 MW · 161 5 Aug 2017 · 1,730 MW · 182 6 Aug 2017 · 556 MW · 138 7 Aug 2017 · 659 MW · 123 8 Aug 2017 · 386 MW · 77 9 Aug 2017 · 191 MW · 63 10 Aug 2017 · 71 MW · 39 11 Aug 2017 · 200 MW · 34 12 Aug 2017 · 2 MW · 3 13 Aug 2017 · 19 MW · 6
8 Jul 15 Jul 21 Jul 27 Jul 1 Aug 4 Aug 6 Aug 11 Aug

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

The weather it burned in

27°high
61km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 18 Aug.

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 4.8% of the area of London (76 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 D where it started
    7,539 ha reached on 8 Jul
    1.6 %
  2. Bulkley-Nechako E
    15 ha reached on 1 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 2015
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, 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.

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)
7 Jul 23.4 °C 38 % 50 km/h 2.0 mm Low 9
8 Jul 20.9 °C 40 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
9 Jul 16.7 °C 36 % 54 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 12
10 Jul 16.1 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
11 Jul 17.4 °C 47 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
12 Jul 16.6 °C 61 % 28 km/h 1.6 mm Very low 4
13 Jul 16.3 °C 50 % 28 km/h 1.9 mm Very low 4
14 Jul 19.6 °C 35 % 21 km/h 0.2 mm Low 8
15 Jul 16.3 °C 44 % 42 km/h 1.6 mm Low 6
16 Jul 13.7 °C 55 % 61 km/h 1.3 mm Low 7
17 Jul 17.2 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
18 Jul 20.6 °C 38 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
19 Jul 21.3 °C 40 % 25 km/h 1.5 mm Low 7
20 Jul 16.1 °C 60 % 30 km/h 5.3 mm Very low 1
21 Jul 17.4 °C 52 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
22 Jul 18.1 °C 53 % 46 km/h 0.7 mm Low 7
23 Jul 15.5 °C 47 % 47 km/h 0.8 mm Low 9
24 Jul 23.1 °C 28 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
25 Jul 24.0 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
26 Jul 20.2 °C 47 % 36 km/h 3.7 mm Very low 3
27 Jul 18.3 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
28 Jul 18.9 °C 47 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
29 Jul 20.1 °C 49 % 34 km/h 1.7 mm Very low 5
30 Jul 19.0 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
31 Jul 21.0 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
1 Aug 22.0 °C 35 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
2 Aug 24.5 °C 34 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
3 Aug 26.3 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
4 Aug 24.6 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
5 Aug 23.7 °C 38 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
6 Aug 26.1 °C 32 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
7 Aug 24.8 °C 40 % 21 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 20
8 Aug 25.0 °C 39 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
9 Aug 25.9 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
10 Aug 26.8 °C 30 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
11 Aug 26.3 °C 37 % 42 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 18
12 Aug 24.7 °C 29 % 41 km/h 1.9 mm Moderate 13
13 Aug 16.8 °C 45 % 50 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 19
14 Aug after 17.3 °C 42 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
15 Aug after 18.0 °C 41 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
16 Aug after 18.5 °C 49 % 48 km/h 0.3 mm High 21
17 Aug after 19.4 °C 49 % 48 km/h 0.1 mm High 24
18 Aug after 15.3 °C 45 % 60 km/h 1.8 mm Low 9

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Jun 2017
After · 20 Aug 2017

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 · 1,784Every 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 D fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 7 July 2017 to 13 August 2017 (38 days). The perimeter dates it from 7 July 2017 to 10 August 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The official perimeter mapped by Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) is 7,626 hectares (76.3 km²). Other tallies, such as those of provincial agencies, may give slightly different figures.
Which census subdivisions burned?
The fire entered 2 census subdivisions: Bulkley-Nechako D (7,539 ha, 1.6 %); Bulkley-Nechako E (15 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 26.8 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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.

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.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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
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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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 7 July 2017 to 10 August 2017. 1,784 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 2015, 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.