Simitli fire, August 2017 Симитли · Kresna, Simitli
The fire started on 24 August 2017 in Simitli, Bulgaria, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,646 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
The largest in Bulgaria in 2017, of 10.
- Burnt area
- 1,646ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 5days
- 24 Aug 2017 – 28 Aug 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 24 Aug
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 95
- in a single hotspot: 204 MW
- Danger at start
- 13
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.3GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 12.4 mm on 29 Aug.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
1,209 ha reached on 24 Aug3.6 %
-
438 ha reached on 24 Aug0.8 %
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
- Coniferous forest37 %
- Other natural land33 %
- Agricultural areas17 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland11 %
- Broadleaved forest2.1 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 73 %
- ZEPA Kresna BG0002003
- LIC Kresna - Ilindentsi BG0000366
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Aug | 26.7 °C | 33 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 25 Aug | 29.4 °C | 32 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 26 Aug | 31.2 °C | 28 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 27 Aug | 31.6 °C | 31 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 28 Aug | 30.7 °C | 33 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 29 Aug after | 21.8 °C | 65 % | 30 km/h | 12.4 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.
Detections table · 95Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Simitli fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 24 August 2017 and 28 August 2017: 5 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,646 hectares (16.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kresna (1,209 ha, 3.6 %); Simitli (438 ha, 0.8 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.6 km of Kresna. 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 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, 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.