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Artana fire, July 2016 Artana, Alcudia de Veo, Tales

Out · last detection 27 Jul 2016, 02:19 UTC

The fire started on 25 July 2016 in Artana, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,380 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 5 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 25 July 2016 at 14:49 and declared extinguished on 8 August 2016.

It is the 4th largest in Castelló / Castellón since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 13 in Spain in 2016, of 69.

The power measured by the satellite is low (23.2 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
1,380ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
3days
25 Jul 2016 – 27 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
5
municipalities
Started on
25 Jul
2016
Heat detections
66
in a single hotspot: 23 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
362MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Jul27 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

2627

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

31°high
42km/h · peak gust
37%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.2 mm on 31 Jul.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Artana 1,993 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the town where it started
    587 ha reached on 26 Jul
    16 %
  2. Alcudia de Veo 200 inhabitants · 4.4 km from the town
    426 ha reached on 26 Jul
    14 %
  3. Tales 827 inhabitants · 2.4 km from the town
    210 ha reached on 26 Jul
    14 %
  4. Eslida 815 inhabitants · 2.6 km from the town
    124 ha reached on 26 Jul
    6.8 %
  5. Onda 26,190 inhabitants · 3.1 km from the town
    35 ha reached on 26 Jul
    0.3 %

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

  • Other natural land92 %
  • Coniferous forest6.4 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub2.0 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

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 25 July 2016 and burned 1,487 ha (the satellite measured 1,380 ha).

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 2026

We checked this page against 3 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
incendi d'Artana · incendio de Artana-Tales-Eslida · incendi de la Serra d'Espadà 2016
Official area reported: 1,556 ha (the satellite measured 1,380 ha)
Declared extinguished: 8 August 2016

Sources

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)
25 Jul 30.5 °C 37 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Jul 30.8 °C 39 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Jul 30.4 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 Jul after 30.6 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Jul after 31.4 °C 36 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Jul after 33.4 °C 39 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
31 Jul after 32.7 °C 25 % 40 km/h 2.2 mm High 26

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Jul 2016
After · 3 Aug 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 26 July 2016 the air beside the fire reached 35 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 22: 1.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak35 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1061 µg/m³
2324252627282930
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 · 66Every 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 Spain ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Artana fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 25 July 2016 and 27 July 2016: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 25 July 2016 at 14:49 and declared extinguished on 8 August 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,380 hectares (13.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 5 municipalities: Artana (587 ha, 16 %); Alcudia de Veo (426 ha, 14 %); Tales (210 ha, 14 %); Eslida (124 ha, 6.8 %); Onda (35 ha, 0.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.2 km of Artana. 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 30.8 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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

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
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.

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.