How long did the Hisarya fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 1 August 2016 and 2 August 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 166 hectares (1.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Hisarya (166 ha, 0.3 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 4.3 km of Hisarya. 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 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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 · 2016-08-01 → 2016-08-02

Hisarya fire, August 2016 Хисаря · Hisarya

Out · last detection 2 Aug 2016, 00:24 UTC

The fire started on 1 August 2016 in Hisarya, Bulgaria, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 166 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 12th largest in Plovdiv since 2016 (of 15 with a page). Number 19 in Bulgaria in 2016, of 24.

The power measured by the satellite is low (1.3 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: 166ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 1 Aug 2016 – 2 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 1 Aug; 2016
Heat detections: 2; in a single hotspot: 1 MW
Danger at start: 29; High · FWI index
Energy released: 2MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Aug2 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

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

The weather it burned in

34°high

28km/h · peak gust

26%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 12 Aug.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Hisarya Хисаря 9,842 inhabitants · 4.3 km from the town where it started

166 ha reached on 2 Aug

0.3 %

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

Agricultural areas91 %
Scrub and transitional woodland9.2 %

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)
1 Aug	33.8 °C	26 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
2 Aug	30.8 °C	39 %	28 km/h	2.1 mm	Low 9
3 Aug after	29.3 °C	41 %	36 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 19
4 Aug after	30.9 °C	38 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
5 Aug after	32.5 °C	33 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
6 Aug after	33.1 °C	32 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
7 Aug after	32.1 °C	36 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
8 Aug after	30.3 °C	42 %	32 km/h	0.3 mm	High 28
9 Aug after	29.9 °C	36 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
10 Aug after	32.7 °C	28 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
11 Aug after	32.8 °C	31 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
12 Aug after	23.7 °C	45 %	40 km/h	2.1 mm	Low 10

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 25 Jul 2016

After · 9 Aug 2016

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 31 July 2016 the air beside the fire reached 23 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 19: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak23 µg/m³

Days over the guideline4 days

PM1028 µg/m³

WHO 15

303112345

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 · 2Every 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 Hisarya fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 1 August 2016 and 2 August 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 166 hectares (1.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Hisarya (166 ha, 0.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 4.3 km of Hisarya. 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 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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.

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?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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