Allande fire, 29 March 2023 Allande
The fire started on 29 March 2023 in Allande, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 2,362 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 29 March 2023 at 04:33 and declared extinguished on 6 April 2023.
It is the 4th largest in Asturias since 2016 (of 225 with a page). Number 6 in Spain in 2023, of 124.
The power measured by the satellite is low (11.1 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
- 2,362ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 3days
- 29 Mar 2023 – 31 Mar 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 29 Mar
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 19
- in a single hotspot: 11 MW
- Danger at start
- 7
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 93MW
- 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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.4 mm on 1 Apr.
This area had burned before
9% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 48 ha in 2017, 39 ha in 2019, 50 ha in 2020, 44 ha in 2021, 30 ha in 2022.
- 41 ha Allande fire, October 2017 453 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6 ha Allande fire, April 2017 758 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1 ha Allande fire, October 2017 487 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
2,365 ha reached on 29 Mar6.9 %
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 land82 %
- Broadleaved forest17 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Official record
According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 29 March 2023 and burned 2,442 ha (the satellite measured 2,362 ha).
- Allande Cruz de los Rios 29 March 2023 · 04:33 2,442 ha · extinguished on 6 April 2023 · cause: arson
MITECO, Estadística General de Incendios Forestales (EGIF). This is the agency’s consolidated statistic: it measures the area in its own way, which is why it can differ from the satellite.
Checked against the press
Checked on 30 September 2026We checked this page against 3 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:
- Also known as
- Incendio de Allande · Incendio de Varadoira (AS-364)
- Declared extinguished: 9 April 2023
Sources
- El SEPRONA de la Guardia Civil del Principado de Asturias detiene a los supuestos autores del incendio de Bustantigo, en Pola de Allande — Tribuna Benemerita (nota del Seprona), 6 May 2023 · official source
- Ingresa en prisión un ganadero de Allande por provocar el incendio que arrasó 1.200 hectáreas de monte — eldiario.es, 5 May 2023
- Primer ingreso en prisión por la oleada de incendios de marzo — RTPA (television publica asturiana), 5 May 2023
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Mar | 22.2 °C | 35 % | 71 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 30 Mar | 17.9 °C | 48 % | 86 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 9 |
| 31 Mar | 13.6 °C | 56 % | 81 km/h | 1.7 mm | Very low 2 |
| 1 Apr after | 10.9 °C | 72 % | 53 km/h | 3.4 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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 30 March 2023 the air beside the fire reached 19 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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)
Detections table · 19Every 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 Allande fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 29 March 2023 and 31 March 2023: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 29 March 2023 at 04:33 and declared extinguished on 6 April 2023.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 2,362 hectares (23.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Allande (2,365 ha, 6.9 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 5.6 km of Allande. 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 22.2 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 86 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 9, class Low.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Spain (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 ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). 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.