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Agios Theodoros Soleas fire, June 2016 Άγιος Θεόδωρος Σολέας · Agios Theodoros Soleas, Spilia, Nikitari

Out · last detection 22 Jun 2016, 11:14 UTC

The fire started on 19 June 2016 in Agios Theodoros Soleas, Cyprus, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,939 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 9 municipalities.

The largest in Cyprus in 2016, of 2.

Compare with…

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Burnt area
1,939ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
19 Jun 2016 – 22 Jun 2016
Municipalities hit
9
municipalities
Started on
19 Jun
2016
Heat detections
113
in a single hotspot: 155 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
264MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Jun22 Jun
22 Jun 2016

How it evolved, day by day

19 Jun 2016 · 52 MW · 18 20 Jun 2016 · 759 MW · 54 21 Jun 2016 · 225 MW · 40 22 Jun 2016 · 18 MW · 1
19 Jun 20 Jun 21 Jun 22 Jun

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
49km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 21 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 1.2% of the area of London (19 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. Agios Theodoros Soleas Άγιος Θεόδωρος Σολέας 49 inhabitants · 1.7 km from the centre where it started
    934 ha reached on 19 Jun
    44 %
  2. Spilia Σπήλια 142 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the centre
    318 ha reached on 19 Jun
    23 %
  3. Nikitari Νικητάρι 447 inhabitants · 9.6 km from the centre
    222 ha reached on 20 Jun
    6.6 %
  4. Evrychou Ευρύχου 827 inhabitants · 1.0 km from the centre
    137 ha reached on 19 Jun
    10 %
  5. Kakopetria Κακοπετριά 1,274 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the centre
    134 ha reached on 19 Jun
    4.1 %
  6. Sinaoros Σιναόρος 228 inhabitants · 1.1 km from the centre
    123 ha reached on 19 Jun
    37 %
  7. Agia Eirini Lefkosias Αγία Ειρήνη Λευκωσίας 27 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the centre
    52 ha reached on 21 Jun
    10 %
  8. Temvria Τεμβριά 498 inhabitants · 1.4 km from the centre
    24 ha reached on 19 Jun
    4.2 %
  9. Agios Georgios Kafkaliou Άγιος Γεώργιος 26 inhabitants · 6.0 km from the centre
    1 ha
    0.0 %

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

  • Other natural land84 %
  • Coniferous forest16 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 16 %

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.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2015
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents≈ 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.00 hectares of built-up land and about 20 residents (GHSL 2015, 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

Official record

According to Τμήμα Δασών, this fire started on 19 June 2016 and burned 1,886 ha (the satellite measured 1,939 ha).

Τμήμα Δασών (Departamento de Bosques de Chipre), catálogo de incendios forestales. This is the agency’s consolidated statistic: it measures the area in its own way, which is why it can differ from the satellite.

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)
19 Jun 35.1 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Jun 36.5 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Jun 37.3 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Jun 36.7 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Jun after 36.8 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Jun after 36.9 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Jun after 36.5 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Jun after 34.6 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
27 Jun after 29.6 °C 33 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 Jun after 32.1 °C 39 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
29 Jun after 32.3 °C 31 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Jun after 31.1 °C 23 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Jul after 32.3 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 Jul after 34.2 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Jul after 34.4 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Jul after 34.5 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Jul after 33.9 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Jul after 34.9 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 12 Jun 2016
After · 29 Jun 2016

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 21 June 2016 the air beside the fire reached 29 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 24: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak29 µg/m³
Days over the guideline9 days
PM1054 µg/m³
17181920212223242526272829
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 · 113Every 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 Cyprus ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Agios Theodoros Soleas fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 19 June 2016 to 22 June 2016 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 June 2016 to 21 June 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,939 hectares (19.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 9 municipalities: Agios Theodoros Soleas (934 ha, 44 %); Spilia (318 ha, 23 %); Nikitari (222 ha, 6.6 %); Evrychou (137 ha, 10 %); Kakopetria (134 ha, 4.1 %); Sinaoros (123 ha, 37 %); Agia Eirini Lefkosias (52 ha, 10 %); Temvria (24 ha, 4.2 %); Agios Georgios Kafkaliou (1 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire came within 0.5 km of the centre of Spilia, the closest of the areas it touched. 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 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Cyprus (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 · 1407 · 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.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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 112 · 1407.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 19 June 2016 to 21 June 2016. 113 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • Compared with Τμήμα Δασών: 1,886 official ha against 1,939 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
  • 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 2015, 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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported). 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.