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VE · Venezuela · –

Pedro Camejo fire, 10 February 2017 Pedro Camejo

Out · last detection 14 Feb 2017, 06:03 UTC

The fire started on 10 February 2017 in Pedro Camejo, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,935 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 210th largest in Apure since 2016 (of 761 with a page). Number 12 in Venezuela in 2017, of 59.

The power measured by the satellite is low (10.3 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
2,935ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
10 Feb 2017 – 20 Feb 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
10 Feb
2017
Heat detections
52
in a single hotspot: 10 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
38MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Feb20 Feb
14 Feb 2017

How it evolved, day by day

11 Feb 2017 · 48 MW · 10 12 Feb 2017 · 56 MW · 24 13 Feb 2017 · 43 MW · 14 14 Feb 2017 · 5 MW · 4
11 Feb 12 Feb 13 Feb 14 Feb

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
55km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

59% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,774 ha in 2016.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.9% of the area of London (29 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Pedro Camejo where it started
    2,952 ha reached on 11 Feb
    0.1 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS 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.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2015
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)

Started with Strong wind: 2.0 % of the area in Venezuela

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
10 Feb 34.7 °C 36 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Feb 33.6 °C 39 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Feb 34.4 °C 33 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Feb 34.2 °C 37 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
14 Feb 33.8 °C 36 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Feb 35.2 °C 35 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
16 Feb 35.5 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Feb 35.5 °C 35 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Feb 34.3 °C 43 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Feb 34.6 °C 46 % 44 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
20 Feb 34.8 °C 45 % 37 km/h 0.6 mm High 28
21 Feb after 35.3 °C 43 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
22 Feb after 35.6 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
23 Feb after 34.0 °C 46 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
24 Feb after 33.1 °C 47 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
25 Feb after 33.4 °C 45 % 49 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
26 Feb after 35.8 °C 38 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Feb after 35.7 °C 32 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
28 Feb after 34.1 °C 40 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Mar after 34.6 °C 40 % 52 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 45
2 Mar after 35.4 °C 37 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 38.7, a minimum humidity of 36% and 10 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 28.

FWI at the start 38.7
Minimum humidity 36 %
Days without rain 10
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Pedro Camejo fire, February 2022
1,592 ha 3 days FWI 39.0 Min. humidity 35 % 10 km away, in 2022

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.7 mm on 26 Feb.

What happened to them

5 days
median duration
2,541 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.7 mm
rain at the end (median; 16 of 28 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (2,935 ha against a median of 2,541 ha) and lasted 11 days, against 5 days.

In 12 of 28, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.7 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
55km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 20 Feb, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 16 of 28, with a median of 2.7 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Feb 2017
After · 27 Feb 2017

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 52Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Venezuela

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Pedro Camejo fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 10 February 2017 to 20 February 2017 (11 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 February 2017 to 14 February 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,935 hectares (29.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pedro Camejo (2,952 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Venezuela (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 28. Their median duration was 5 days and their median area 2,541 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 12 of 28, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.7 mm.

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: 911 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 14 February 2017 → 20 February 2017.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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?

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 911.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 10 February 2017 to 14 February 2017. 52 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.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. 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 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.