Arpaia fire, August 2023 Arpaia, Airola, Forchia
The fire started on 22 August 2023 in Arpaia, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 129 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the 6th largest in Benevento since 2016 (of 11 with a page). Number 165 in Italy in 2023, of 207.
The power measured by the satellite is low (8.4 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
- 129ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 22 Aug 2023 – 23 Aug 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- municipalities
- Started on
- 22 Aug
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 6
- in a single hotspot: 8 MW
- Danger at start
- 22
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 25MW
- 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: 3.1 mm on 28 Aug.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 77 ha in 2017, 22 ha in 2019, 127 ha in 2021, 29 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 127 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
93 ha reached on 22 Aug19 %
-
Airola 8,106 inhabitants · 1.8 km from the town35 ha reached on 22 Aug2.4 %
-
Forchia 1,217 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the town1 ha0.2 %
-
Moiano 4,013 inhabitants · 3.4 km from the town0 ha0.0 %
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 land97 %
- Agricultural areas3.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Aug | 32.4 °C | 36 % | 32 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 22 |
| 23 Aug | 32.6 °C | 33 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 24 Aug after | 32.9 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 25 Aug after | 31.1 °C | 45 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 26 Aug after | 29.5 °C | 54 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 27 Aug after | 30.2 °C | 34 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 28 Aug after | 24.5 °C | 58 % | 62 km/h | 3.1 mm | Low 7 |
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 25 August 2023 the air beside the fire reached 24 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 times the WHO daily 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 · 6Every 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 Arpaia fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 22 August 2023 and 23 August 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 129 hectares (1.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Arpaia (93 ha, 19 %); Airola (35 ha, 2.4 %); Forchia (1 ha, 0.2 %); Moiano (0 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.5 km of Arpaia. 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 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, 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.