Lukovit fire, 18 September 2019 Луковит · Lukovit
The fire started on 18 September 2019 in Lukovit, Bulgaria, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 250 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 21th largest in Lovech since 2016 (of 52 with a page). Number 14 in Bulgaria in 2019, of 42.
The power measured by the satellite is low (10.6 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
- 250ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 4days
- 18 Sept 2019 – 21 Sept 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 18 Sept
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 11
- in a single hotspot: 11 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 73MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
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
It had gone 45 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 23 Sept.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
250 ha reached on 18 Sept0.6 %
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 areas67 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland32 %
- Broadleaved forest0.8 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 8 %
- LIC Karlukovo BG0001014
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Sept | 24.6 °C | 32 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 19 Sept | 17.0 °C | 42 % | 21 km/h | 1.5 mm | Low 9 |
| 20 Sept | 19.1 °C | 32 % | 38 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 21 Sept | 19.5 °C | 33 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 22 Sept after | 23.6 °C | 29 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 23 Sept after | 24.8 °C | 35 % | 19 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
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 16 September 2019 the air beside the fire reached 20 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 11Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 789 haRoman Роман17 September 2019 · 2 days · 13 km away
- 864 haCherven Bryag Червен бряг7 September 2019 · 2 days · 15 km away
- 637 haCherven Bryag Червен брягAugust 2026 · 1 day · 15 km away
- 888 haCherven Bryag Червен брягJuly 2016 · 4 days · 16 km away
- 2,625 haCherven Bryag Червен бряг16 July 2024 · 5 days · 17 km away
- 624 haRoman РоманAugust 2024 · 4 days · 17 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lukovit fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 18 September 2019 and 21 September 2019: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 250 hectares (2.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Lukovit (250 ha, 0.6 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 6.7 km of Lukovit. 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 24.6 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very 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
Satellite cross-check
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
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.