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VE · Venezuela · –

Pedro Camejo fire, 2 February 2020 Pedro Camejo

Out · last detection 22 Feb 2020, 17:26 UTC

The fire started on 2 February 2020 in Pedro Camejo, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,344 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 7th largest in Apure since 2016 (of 761 with a page). Number 8 in Venezuela in 2020, of 401.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Muñoz · 2022Pedro Camejo · 2017Pedro Camejo · 2018Pedro Camejo · 2016

Burnt area
11,344ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
21days
2 Feb 2020 – 22 Feb 2020
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
2 Feb
2020
Heat detections
352
in a single hotspot: 50 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
93MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Feb22 Feb
22 Feb 2020

How it evolved, day by day

2 Feb 2020 · 36 MW · 6 3 Feb 2020 · 63 MW · 5 4 Feb 2020 · 166 MW · 9 5 Feb 2020 · 517 MW · 55 6 Feb 2020 · 25 MW · 8 7 Feb 2020 · 17 MW · 10 8 Feb 2020 · 71 MW · 19 9 Feb 2020 · 62 MW · 6 10 Feb 2020 · 37 MW · 15 11 Feb 2020 · 37 MW · 10 12 Feb 2020 · 37 MW · 8 13 Feb 2020 · 57 MW · 15 14 Feb 2020 · 20 MW · 15 15 Feb 2020 · 138 MW · 21 16 Feb 2020 · 212 MW · 47 17 Feb 2020 · 122 MW · 43 18 Feb 2020 · 84 MW · 18 19 Feb 2020 · 181 MW · 22 20 Feb 2020 · 46 MW · 11 21 Feb 2020 · 25 MW · 7 22 Feb 2020 · 8 MW · 2
5 Feb 12 Feb 17 Feb 22 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

37°high
51km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

30% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 192 ha in 2016, 2,305 ha in 2018, 863 ha in 2019.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 7.2% of the area of London (113 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
    11,403 ha reached on 2 Feb
    0.5 %

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 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
2 Feb 35.6 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Feb 36.2 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Feb 35.5 °C 28 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
5 Feb 35.5 °C 31 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
6 Feb 35.1 °C 34 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
7 Feb 35.3 °C 31 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Feb 34.6 °C 30 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
9 Feb 35.2 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
10 Feb 34.9 °C 33 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
11 Feb 35.2 °C 34 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Feb 35.8 °C 35 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Feb 35.3 °C 34 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
14 Feb 35.4 °C 36 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 Feb 34.6 °C 36 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
16 Feb 36.1 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Feb 35.4 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Feb 35.1 °C 43 % 41 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 45
19 Feb 36.6 °C 32 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Feb 36.5 °C 32 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Feb 36.6 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Feb 36.6 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Feb after 35.5 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Feb after 35.9 °C 38 % 34 km/h 0.5 mm High 38
25 Feb after 35.8 °C 39 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Feb after 35.6 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Feb after 36.7 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Feb after 35.8 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Feb after 35.9 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Mar after 35.4 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
2 Mar after 35.8 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 38
3 Mar after 35.7 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 40.7, a minimum humidity of 34% and 16 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 60.

FWI at the start 40.7
Minimum humidity 34 %
Days without rain 16
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Muñoz fire, March 2022
1,561 ha 4 days FWI 41.6 Min. humidity 34 % 127 km away, in 2022

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.0 mm on 29 Mar.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

4 days
median duration
2,618 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.8 mm
rain at the end (median; 41 of 60 had it)

It was 4.3 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 21 days, against 4 days.

None of its 60 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 19 of 60, 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 2.8 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
51km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 22 Feb, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 41 of 60, with a median of 2.8 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 · 26 Jan 2020
After · 29 Feb 2020

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 · 352Every 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 2 February 2020 to 22 February 2020 (21 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 February 2020 to 22 February 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 11,344 hectares (113.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pedro Camejo (11,403 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, class Extreme.
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: 60. Their median duration was 4 days and their median area 2,618 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. None of its 60 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 19 of 60, 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 2.8 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. Start date: 4 February 2020 → 2 February 2020.

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 4 February 2020 to 22 February 2020. 352 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 2020, 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.