Andria fire, October 2023 Minervino Murge, Andria
The fire started on 14 October 2023 in Andria, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 318 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 7th largest in Barletta-Andria-Trani since 2016 (of 21 with a page). Number 65 in Italy in 2023, of 207.
The power measured by the satellite is low (3.5 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
- 318ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 14 Oct 2023 – 15 Oct 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 14 Oct
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 18
- in a single hotspot: 4 MW
- Danger at start
- 23
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 42MW
- 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 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.8 mm on 16 Oct.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Minervino Murge 8,171 inhabitants · 7.0 km from the town190 ha reached on 15 Oct0.7 %
-
129 ha reached on 15 Oct0.3 %
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
- Agricultural areas56 %
- Other natural land44 %
- Coniferous forest0.9 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- ZEPA + LIC Murgia Alta IT9120007
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Oct | 27.8 °C | 24 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 15 Oct | 27.1 °C | 36 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 16 Oct after | 19.1 °C | 65 % | 37 km/h | 8.8 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 12 October 2023 the air beside the fire reached 20 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 · 18Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 753 haMinervino Murge15 July 2026 · 1 day · 6 km away
- 601 haMinervino Murge10 August 2026 · 1 day · 8 km away
- 585 haAndriaJune 2022 · 1 day · 10 km away
- 912 haMontemiloneJuly 2025 · 1 day · 18 km away
- 3,455 haGravina in Puglia25 August 2026 · 5 days · 21 km away
- 1,059 haGravina in PugliaJuly 2021 · 5 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Andria fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 14 October 2023 and 15 October 2023: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 318 hectares (3.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Minervino Murge (190 ha, 0.7 %); Andria (129 ha, 0.3 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 7.0 km of Minervino Murge. 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 27.8 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Italy (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 · 1515
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 ADM4 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License). 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.