Arico fire, May 2021 Arico, Granadilla de Abona, La Orotava
The fire started on 20 May 2021 in Arico, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 3,052 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 20 May 2021 at 11:45 and declared extinguished on 27 October 2021.
Number 3 in Spain in 2021, of 124.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 3,052ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 4days
- 20 May 2021 – 23 May 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 20 May
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 211
- in a single hotspot: 246 MW
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 1.3GW
- detected power per day, on average
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 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.3 mm on 24 May.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
3,060 ha reached on 20 May17 %
-
Granadilla de Abona 58,752 inhabitants · 8.3 km from the centre4 ha reached on 22 May0.0 %
-
0 ha reached on 21 May0.0 %
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
- Coniferous forest81 %
- Other natural land19 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- LIC Corona Forestal ES7020054
- ZEPA Montes y cumbre de Tenerife ES0000107
- LIC Parque Nacional del Teide ES7020043
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.
Official record
According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 20 May 2021 and burned 3,052 ha (the satellite measured 3,052 ha).
- Arico Barranco Chajaña 20 May 2021 · 11:45 3,052 ha · extinguished on 27 October 2021 · 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 forestal de Arico · Incendio de Tenerife Sur
- Official area reported: 3,029 ha (the satellite measured 3,052 ha)
- Declared extinguished: 27 October 2021
Sources
- Extinguido cinco meses despues el incendio en Arico, que afecto a 3.029 hectareas — eldiario.es Canarias Ahora, 27 October 2021
- El incendio de Arico se reduce a 3.000 hectareas en nivel 2 — Diario de Avisos, 23 May 2021
- El fuego de Arico afecta 2.800 hectareas y se extingue en el Parque Nacional — Canarias7, 22 May 2021
Official figures are measured differently from satellite ones and sometimes cover only part of the fire.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 May | 28.7 °C | 15 % | 64 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 21 May | 30.4 °C | 11 % | 66 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 22 May | 28.0 °C | 15 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 23 May | 19.1 °C | 40 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 24 May after | 16.5 °C | 43 % | 45 km/h | 2.3 mm | Low 5 |
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 · 211Every 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 Arico fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 20 May 2021 and 23 May 2021: 4 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 20 May 2021 at 11:45 and declared extinguished on 27 October 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 3,052 hectares (30.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Arico (3,060 ha, 17 %); Granadilla de Abona (4 ha, 0.0 %); La Orotava (0 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Arico and came within 2.0 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 30.4 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 66 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class High.
- 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 · 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.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 211 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 3,052 official ha against 3,052 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- Checked against news and agencies: 3 confirmed sources.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.