Kotel fire, September 2019 Котел · Kotel
The fire started on 12 September 2019 in Kotel, Bulgaria, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 138 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 6th largest in Sliven since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 30 in Bulgaria in 2019, of 42.
The power measured by the satellite is low (1.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Kotel · 2019Kotel · 2022Kotel · 2019Kotel · 2022
- Burnt area
- 138ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 12 Sept 2019 – 13 Sept 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 12 Sept
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 5
- in a single hotspot: 2 MW
- Danger at start
- 19
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 7MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
13 Sept 2019 · 7 MW · 5
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 38 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.5 mm on 20 Sept.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
138 ha reached on 13 Sept0.2 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, 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.
What burned
- Other natural land89 %
- Coniferous forest9.4 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland0.7 %
- Broadleaved forest0.7 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- ZEPA + LIC Kotlenska planina BG0000117 · BG0002029
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Sept | 20.9 °C | 55 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 13 Sept | 23.9 °C | 28 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 14 Sept after | 24.1 °C | 32 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 15 Sept after | 22.1 °C | 36 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 16 Sept after | 23.6 °C | 36 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 17 Sept after | 26.0 °C | 30 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 18 Sept after | 24.8 °C | 33 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 19 Sept after | 14.9 °C | 46 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 20 Sept after | 13.5 °C | 50 % | 41 km/h | 5.5 mm | Very low 3 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 14 September 2019 the air beside the fire reached 23 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 5Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 153 haKotel КотелDecember 2019 · 2 days · 5 km away
- 225 haKotel Котел4 November 2022 · 5 days · 20 km away
- 375 haKotel КотелAugust 2019 · 1 day · 23 km away
- 250 haKotel Котел2 November 2022 · 4 days · 23 km away
- 148 haSungurlare СунгурлареAugust 2019 · 1 day · 26 km away
- 1,636 haSungurlare СунгурлареAugust 2025 · 5 days · 28 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kotel fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 12 September 2019 and 13 September 2019: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 138 hectares (1.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Kotel (138 ha, 0.2 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Kotel and came within 2.1 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 23.9 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 50 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 · 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.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 5 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.
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.