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VE · Venezuela · –

San Casimiro fire, February 2020 San Casimiro, San Sebastián

Out · last detection 5 Mar 2020, 05:56 UTC

The fire started on 22 February 2020 in San Casimiro, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,683 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 15th largest in Aragua since 2016 (of 19 with a page). Number 315 in Venezuela in 2020, of 401.

The power measured by the satellite is low (19.5 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
1,683ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
22 Feb 2020 – 8 Mar 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
22 Feb
2020
Heat detections
52
in a single hotspot: 19 MW
Danger at start
25
High · FWI index
Average daily power
27MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Feb8 Mar
5 Mar 2020

How it evolved, day by day

22 Feb 2020 · 22 MW · 4 24 Feb 2020 · 15 MW · 6 25 Feb 2020 · 28 MW · 9 26 Feb 2020 · 49 MW · 10 27 Feb 2020 · 22 MW · 4 28 Feb 2020 · 34 MW · 4 29 Feb 2020 · 63 MW · 6 1 Mar 2020 · 1 MW · 1 3 Mar 2020 · 31 MW · 7 5 Mar 2020 · 6 MW · 1
22 Feb 25 Feb 27 Feb 29 Feb 3 Mar

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
51km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 37 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.1% of the area of London (17 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. San Casimiro 25,540 inhabitants where it started
    1,693 ha reached on 22 Feb
    3.3 %
  2. 1 ha
    0.0 %

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 area0.53 ha
Residents≈ 40

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.53 hectares of built-up land and about 40 residents (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)
22 Feb 34.5 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
23 Feb 34.6 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
24 Feb 31.9 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.3 mm High 29
25 Feb 33.4 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 Feb 33.8 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Feb 34.4 °C 23 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Feb 31.8 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Feb 33.8 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 Mar 34.1 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Mar 32.9 °C 27 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Mar 33.3 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Mar 33.5 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Mar 34.3 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Mar 34.0 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Mar 34.8 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Mar 34.6 °C 23 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Mar after 31.2 °C 33 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Mar after 33.3 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Mar after 33.6 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
12 Mar after 32.3 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Mar after 33.1 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.8 mm High 30
14 Mar after 34.5 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Mar after 35.3 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Mar after 34.9 °C 18 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Mar after 33.7 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
18 Mar after 32.2 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 25.2, a minimum humidity of 20% and 37 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 28.

FWI at the start 25.2
Minimum humidity 20 %
Days without rain 37
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

San Casimiro fire, March 2024
1,549 ha 15 days FWI 25.5 Min. humidity 27 % 9 km away, in 2024

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

8 days
median duration
2,231 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.7 mm
rain at the end (median; 10 of 28 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (1,683 ha against a median of 2,231 ha) and lasted 16 days, against 8 days.

In 18 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
51km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 8 Mar, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 10 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 · 15 Feb 2020
After · 15 Mar 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 · 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 San Casimiro fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 22 February 2020 to 8 March 2020 (16 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 February 2020 to 1 March 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,683 hectares (16.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: San Casimiro (1,693 ha, 3.3 %); San Sebastián (1 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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 8 days and their median area 2,231 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 18 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: 1 March 2020 → 8 March 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 22 February 2020 to 1 March 2020. 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 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.