How long did the Buqus fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 10 August 2021 and 13 August 2021: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 2,697 hectares (27.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Buqus (1,665 ha, 7.7 %); Zitouna (1,035 ha, 6.4 %); El Tarf (2 ha, 0.0 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.1 km of Zitouna. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 44.1 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 69, class Extreme.

Where does this data come from?

From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Algeria (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

DZ · Algeria · 2021-08-10 → 2021-08-13

Buqus fire, August 2021 بوقوس · Buqus, Zitouna, El Tarf

Out · last detection 13 Aug 2021, 12:43 UTC

The fire started on 10 August 2021 in Buqus, Algeria, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 2,697 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 6th largest in El Tarf since 2016 (of 121 with a page). Number 14 in Algeria in 2021, of 92.

Burnt area: 2,697ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 4days; 10 Aug 2021 – 13 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit: 3; communes
Started on: 10 Aug; 2021
Heat detections: 94; in a single hotspot: 112 MW
Danger at start: 69; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 2.6GW; sum of detected power

Play back 13 Aug 2021

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Aug13 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

10111213

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

The weather it burned in

44°high

44km/h · peak gust

8%lowest humidity

It had gone 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

63% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 43 ha in 2016, 1,630 ha in 2017, 34 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

Buqus بوقوس 11,234 inhabitants · 3.4 km from the town where it started

1,665 ha reached on 10 Aug

7.7 %
Zitouna الزيتونة 9,736 inhabitants · 3.1 km from the town

1,035 ha reached on 10 Aug

6.4 %
El Tarf الطارف 25,594 inhabitants · 8.6 km from the town

2 ha

0.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official 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.

What burned

Mixed forest60 %
Other natural land38 %
Broadleaved forest1.5 %

Protected area affected (EFFIS layer): 39 %

Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).

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	Danger (FWI)
10 Aug	44.1 °C	8 %	44 km/h	Extreme 69
11 Aug	43.4 °C	8 %	44 km/h	Extreme 65
12 Aug	41.9 °C	9 %	32 km/h	Extreme 61
13 Aug	40.7 °C	12 %	36 km/h	Extreme 63
14 Aug after	35.4 °C	29 %	36 km/h	Very high 45
15 Aug after	36.9 °C	23 %	36 km/h	Very high 46
16 Aug after	39.4 °C	16 %	42 km/h	Extreme 54
17 Aug after	31.3 °C	48 %	40 km/h	High 34
18 Aug after	29.0 °C	43 %	40 km/h	High 32
19 Aug after	32.2 °C	33 %	36 km/h	High 33
20 Aug after	32.1 °C	43 %	35 km/h	High 32
21 Aug after	33.3 °C	29 %	38 km/h	High 37
22 Aug after	33.8 °C	23 %	35 km/h	Very high 41
23 Aug after	35.7 °C	21 %	38 km/h	Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 3 Aug 2021

After · 20 Aug 2021

Before After

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 14 August 2021 the air beside the fire reached 54 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 36: 2.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak54 µg/m³

Days over the guideline9 days

PM10116 µg/m³

WHO 15

8910111213141516

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 · 94Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Algeria ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Buqus fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 10 August 2021 and 13 August 2021: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 2,697 hectares (27.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Buqus (1,665 ha, 7.7 %); Zitouna (1,035 ha, 6.4 %); El Tarf (2 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.1 km of Zitouna. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 44.1 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 69, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?: From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Algeria (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.

Emergency number: 14 · 1021

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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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 14 · 1021.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter and land cover come from the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), measured on MODIS and Sentinel-2 imagery and published under CC BY 4.0. 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 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from each country’s official figure.

Where it burned