How long did the Burgas fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 2 August 2017 and 5 August 2017: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 992 hectares (9.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Burgas (994 ha, 1.7 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 12.0 km of Burgas. 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 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class High.

Where does this data come from?

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

BG · Bulgaria · 2017-08-02 → 2017-08-05

Burgas fire, August 2017 Бургас · Burgas

Out · last detection 5 Aug 2017, 11:47 UTC

The fire started on 2 August 2017 in Burgas, Bulgaria, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 992 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 2th largest in Burgas since 2016 (of 33 with a page). Number 2 in Bulgaria in 2017, of 10.

The power measured by the satellite is low (29.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area: 992ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 4days; 2 Aug 2017 – 5 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 2 Aug; 2017
Heat detections: 21; in a single hotspot: 29 MW
Danger at start: 23; High · FWI index
Energy released: 242MW; sum of detected power

Play back 5 Aug 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Aug5 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

235

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

The weather it burned in

36°high

46km/h · peak gust

25%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Burgas Бургас 189,086 inhabitants · 12.0 km from the town where it started

994 ha reached on 2 Aug

1.7 %

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

Other natural land57 %
Agricultural areas24 %
Scrub and transitional woodland14 %
Mixed forest4.9 %
Artificial surfaces0.5 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 82 %

ZEPA + LIC Atanasovsko ezero BG0000270
LIC Aytoska planina BG0000151

Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

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)
2 Aug	31.5 °C	35 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
3 Aug	33.3 °C	36 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
4 Aug	35.3 °C	28 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
5 Aug	36.2 °C	25 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
6 Aug after	36.6 °C	27 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
7 Aug after	34.5 °C	38 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
8 Aug after	32.2 °C	44 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
9 Aug after	29.7 °C	51 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
10 Aug after	31.7 °C	36 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
11 Aug after	32.7 °C	40 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
12 Aug after	32.0 °C	25 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
13 Aug after	31.9 °C	27 %	57 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
14 Aug after	27.5 °C	43 %	58 km/h	0.6 mm	High 35
15 Aug after	29.9 °C	37 %	55 km/h	0.2 mm	High 34

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 26 Jul 2017

After · 12 Aug 2017

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 6 August 2017 the air beside the fire reached 24 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak24 µg/m³

Days over the guideline5 days

PM1028 µg/m³

WHO 15

3112345678

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 · 21Every 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 Bulgaria ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Burgas fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 2 August 2017 and 5 August 2017: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 992 hectares (9.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Burgas (994 ha, 1.7 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 12.0 km of Burgas. 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 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class High.
Where does this data come from?: From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Bulgaria (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: 112

ГДПБЗН · Пожарна безопасност и защита на населението ↗

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.

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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 112.

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 ADM2 (Public Domain). 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