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VE · Venezuela · –

Pedro Camejo fire, 11 February 2023 Pedro Camejo

Out · last detection 12 Feb 2023, 18:06 UTC

The fire started on 11 February 2023 in Pedro Camejo, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,222 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 175th largest in Apure since 2016 (of 761 with a page). Number 39 in Venezuela in 2023, of 193.

Burnt area
3,222ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
11 Feb 2023 – 12 Feb 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
11 Feb
2023
Heat detections
75
in a single hotspot: 145 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
403MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Feb12 Feb
12 Feb 2023

How it evolved, day by day

11 Feb 2023 · 611 MW · 27 12 Feb 2023 · 194 MW · 48
11 Feb 12 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

35°high
44km/h · peak gust
40%lowest humidity

It had gone 32 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

44% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 12 ha in 2016, 355 ha in 2018, 1,059 ha in 2020, 236 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,404 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2% of the area of London (32 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
    3,241 ha reached on 11 Feb
    0.2 %

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 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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)
11 Feb 34.3 °C 42 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Feb 34.6 °C 40 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Feb after 33.3 °C 47 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Feb after 33.8 °C 48 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
15 Feb after 33.4 °C 49 % 46 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 43
16 Feb after 32.7 °C 44 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Feb after 33.5 °C 34 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Feb after 33.8 °C 29 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
19 Feb after 33.8 °C 37 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Feb after 33.5 °C 38 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 Feb after 33.1 °C 40 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
22 Feb after 33.8 °C 36 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 40.2, a minimum humidity of 42% and 32 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 19.

FWI at the start 40.2
Minimum humidity 42 %
Days without rain 32
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Pedro Camejo fire, March 2017
1,515 ha 5 days FWI 39.1 Min. humidity 40 % 18 km away, in 2017

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 4.1 mm on 11 Mar.

What happened to them

3 days
median duration
2,085 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
1.8 mm
rain at the end (median; 8 of 19 had it)

It was 1.5 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 2 days, against 3 days.

Only 2 of its 19 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 11 of 19, 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 1.8 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
44km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 12 Feb, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 8 of 19, with a median of 1.8 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 · 4 Feb 2023
After · 19 Feb 2023

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 14 February 2023 the air beside the fire reached 33 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak33 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1047 µg/m³
Optical depth0.42
9 Feb11 Feb13 Feb15 Feb
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 · 75Every 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?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 February 2023 and 12 February 2023: 2 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,222 hectares (32.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pedro Camejo (3,241 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.6 °C, humidity dropped to 40 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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: 19. Their median duration was 3 days and their median area 2,085 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 2 of its 19 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 11 of 19, 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 1.8 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night 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
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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 75 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 2025, 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.