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Bulkley-Nechako E fire, 1 August 2018 Bulkley-Nechako D, Bulkley-Nechako E

Out · last detection 4 Sept 2018, 21:53 UTC

The fire started on 1 August 2018 in Bulkley-Nechako E, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 34 days. Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) mapped an official burnt perimeter of 18,857 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 census subdivisions.

It is the 64th largest in British Columbia since 2016 (of 448 with a page). Number 20 in Canada in 2018, of 212.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Bulkley-Nechako E · 2018Bulkley-Nechako D · 2023Bulkley-Nechako B · 2023

Burnt area
18,857ha
official perimeter (CWFIS)
Duration
34days
1 Aug 2018 – 3 Sept 2018
Census subdivisions hit
2
municipalities
Started on
1 Aug
2018
Heat detections
5,687
in a single hotspot: 525 MW
Danger at start
17
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
2.5GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Aug3 Sept
4 Sept 2018

How it evolved, day by day

2 Aug 2018 · 5,459 MW · 62 3 Aug 2018 · 274 MW · 59 5 Aug 2018 · 317 MW · 34 6 Aug 2018 · 36 MW · 25 7 Aug 2018 · 14,586 MW · 558 8 Aug 2018 · 11,284 MW · 808 9 Aug 2018 · 5,265 MW · 384 10 Aug 2018 · 2,292 MW · 100 11 Aug 2018 · 3,892 MW · 302 12 Aug 2018 · 6,599 MW · 261 13 Aug 2018 · 1,499 MW · 246 14 Aug 2018 · 1,068 MW · 210 15 Aug 2018 · 1,292 MW · 225 16 Aug 2018 · 2,352 MW · 180 17 Aug 2018 · 3,762 MW · 311 18 Aug 2018 · 2,671 MW · 315 19 Aug 2018 · 2,799 MW · 324 20 Aug 2018 · 4,051 MW · 345 21 Aug 2018 · 3,647 MW · 291 22 Aug 2018 · 2,537 MW · 281 23 Aug 2018 · 155 MW · 45 24 Aug 2018 · 362 MW · 78 25 Aug 2018 · 101 MW · 7 26 Aug 2018 · 207 MW · 16 27 Aug 2018 · 1,379 MW · 90 28 Aug 2018 · 174 MW · 46 29 Aug 2018 · 211 MW · 40 30 Aug 2018 · 56 MW · 6 31 Aug 2018 · 101 MW · 25 1 Sept 2018 · 17 MW · 8 3 Sept 2018 · 1 MW · 1 4 Sept 2018 · 50 MW · 4
2 Aug 7 Aug 8 Aug 13 Aug 18 Aug 23 Aug 28 Aug 3 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

28°high
67km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.8 mm on 7 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 12% of the area of London (189 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
    11,660 ha reached on 2 Aug
    2.5 %
  2. Bulkley-Nechako E where it started
    7,260 ha reached on 2 Aug
    0.4 %

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 2020
Built-up area0.10 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.10 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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)
1 Aug 26.0 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 17
2 Aug 22.3 °C 38 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
3 Aug 20.9 °C 46 % 47 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 19
4 Aug 21.5 °C 39 % 24 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 16
5 Aug 25.9 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
6 Aug 25.9 °C 23 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
7 Aug 27.3 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
8 Aug 26.8 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Aug 26.1 °C 32 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
10 Aug 23.4 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
11 Aug 20.2 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
12 Aug 24.0 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
13 Aug 26.0 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
14 Aug 24.7 °C 32 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Aug 20.5 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
16 Aug 24.3 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Aug 22.1 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Aug 21.5 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
19 Aug 23.0 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
20 Aug 24.5 °C 23 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
21 Aug 28.0 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Aug 23.1 °C 33 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Aug 16.8 °C 43 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
24 Aug 19.0 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
25 Aug 16.4 °C 49 % 43 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 15
26 Aug 17.7 °C 41 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
27 Aug 21.1 °C 36 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
28 Aug 20.2 °C 40 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
29 Aug 16.7 °C 37 % 42 km/h 0.3 mm High 24
30 Aug 17.7 °C 36 % 47 km/h 0.3 mm High 25
31 Aug 14.2 °C 52 % 67 km/h 2.0 mm Low 10
1 Sept 14.7 °C 41 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
2 Sept 13.6 °C 45 % 56 km/h 3.6 mm Low 6
3 Sept 14.4 °C 42 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
4 Sept after 17.6 °C 33 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
5 Sept after 16.8 °C 42 % 25 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 14
6 Sept after 17.6 °C 44 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
7 Sept after 17.4 °C 55 % 29 km/h 5.8 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Jul 2018
After · 10 Sept 2018

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 · 5,687Every 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 E fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 1 August 2018 to 3 September 2018 (34 days). The perimeter dates it from 1 August 2018 to 27 August 2018.
How much area did it burn?
The official perimeter mapped by Canada’s CWFIS (Natural Resources Canada) is 18,857 hectares (188.6 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 (11,660 ha, 2.5 %); Bulkley-Nechako E (7,260 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.0 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 67 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.

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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 1 August 2018 to 27 August 2018. 5,687 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 2020, 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.