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DZ · Algeria · –

Timezrit fire, August 2021 تيمزريت · Timezrit, Bordj Menaiel

Out · last detection 14 Aug 2021, 01:04 UTC

The fire started on 6 August 2021 in Timezrit, Algeria, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 131 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 7th largest in Boumerdes since 2016 (of 11 with a page). Number 72 in Algeria in 2021, of 92.

The power measured by the satellite is low (26.7 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
131ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
11days
6 Aug 2021 – 16 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
6 Aug
2021
Heat detections
16
in a single hotspot: 27 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Average daily power
48MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Aug16 Aug
14 Aug 2021

How it evolved, day by day

10 Aug 2021 · 94 MW · 7 11 Aug 2021 · 61 MW · 5 12 Aug 2021 · 35 MW · 3 14 Aug 2021 · 2 MW · 1
10 Aug 11 Aug 12 Aug 14 Aug

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
48km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 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.

What happened to each town

  1. Timezrit تيمزريت 9,991 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the centre where it started
    99 ha reached on 10 Aug
    4.3 %
  2. Bordj Menaiel برج منايل 64,820 inhabitants · 8.1 km from the centre
    33 ha reached on 12 Aug
    0.3 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official 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.

What burned

  • Mixed forest92 %
  • Other natural land6.2 %
  • Broadleaved forest1.5 %

Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area0.97 ha
Residents≈ 150

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.97 hectares of built-up land and about 150 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)
6 Aug 30.0 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Aug 30.4 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Aug 27.4 °C 45 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Aug 33.8 °C 35 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Aug 36.4 °C 20 % 48 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 61
11 Aug 36.9 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
12 Aug 36.6 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 82
13 Aug 32.4 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Aug 34.1 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Aug 34.4 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Aug 32.6 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Aug after 27.7 °C 58 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Aug after 27.2 °C 49 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Aug after 28.6 °C 46 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Aug after 29.0 °C 47 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
21 Aug after 32.0 °C 33 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Aug after 33.0 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
23 Aug after 31.2 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Aug after 29.4 °C 50 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
25 Aug after 27.1 °C 56 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
26 Aug after 27.3 °C 50 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 28

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 37.1, a minimum humidity of 37% and 23 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 26.

FWI at the start 37.1
Minimum humidity 37 %
Days without rain 23
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Akerrou fire, July 2017
120 ha 4 days FWI 37.9 Min. humidity 37 % 55 km away, in 2017

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

What happened to them

2 days
median duration
188 ha
median area
8 %
went past 1,000 ha
1.2 mm
rain at the end (median; 13 of 26 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (131 ha against a median of 188 ha) and lasted 11 days, against 2 days.

In 13 of 26, 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 1.2 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
48km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 16 Aug, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 13 of 26, with a median of 1.2 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 · 30 Jul 2021
After · 23 Aug 2021

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 August 2021 the air beside the fire reached 44 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 40: 2.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak44 µg/m³
Days over the guideline8 days
PM1087 µg/m³
7 Aug10 Aug13 Aug16 Aug
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 · 16Every 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 Algeria

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Timezrit fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 6 August 2021 to 16 August 2021 (11 days). The perimeter dates it from 9 August 2021 to 10 August 2021.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 131 hectares (1.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Timezrit (99 ha, 4.3 %); Bordj Menaiel (33 ha, 0.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Timezrit and came within 0.5 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 82, class Very extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Algeria (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: 26. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 188 ha; 8 % went past 1,000 ha. In 13 of 26, 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 1.2 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: 14 · 1021 · 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 14 · 1021.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 9 August 2021 to 10 August 2021. 16 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 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 ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0). 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.