Pernik fire, September 2024 Перник · Pernik
The fire started on 6 September 2024 in Pernik, Bulgaria, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 281 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
Number 27 in Bulgaria in 2024, of 62.
We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.
- Burnt area
- 281ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 6 Sept 2024 – 6 Sept 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 6 Sept
- 2024
- Danger at start
- 15
- Moderate · FWI index
- Natura 2000
- 65%
- of the perimeter is protected land
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 13.9 mm on 10 Sept.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
282 ha0.6 %
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
- Other natural land63 %
- Agricultural areas18 %
- Broadleaved forest11 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland7.5 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 65 %
- ZEPA Meshtitsa BG0002101
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Sept | 26.1 °C | 46 % | 21 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 7 Sept after | 24.6 °C | 46 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 8 Sept after | 25.8 °C | 33 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 9 Sept after | 26.9 °C | 43 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 10 Sept after | 19.7 °C | 67 % | 16 km/h | 13.9 mm | Very low 0 |
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 5 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 18 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 15: 1.0 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)
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Pernik fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 6 September 2024 and 6 September 2024: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 281 hectares (2.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Pernik (282 ha, 0.6 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 10.7 km of Pernik. 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 26.1 °C, humidity dropped to 46 % and gusts hit 21 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 15, class Moderate.
- 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.