How long did the Artenara fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 10 August 2019 and 12 August 2019: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 10 August 2019 at 12:10 and declared extinguished on 25 August 2019.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,264 hectares (12.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 5 municipalities: Artenara (667 ha, 10 %); Tejeda (309 ha, 3.0 %); Gáldar (264 ha, 4.2 %); Moya (23 ha, 0.7 %); Valleseco (6 ha, 0.3 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.1 km of Artenara. 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 35.4 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 70 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, class Extreme.

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.

ES · Spain · 2019-08-10 → 2019-08-12

Artenara fire, 10 August 2019 Artenara, Tejeda, Gáldar

Out · last detection 12 Aug 2019, 03:31 UTC

The fire started on 10 August 2019 in Artenara, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,264 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 5 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 10 August 2019 at 12:10 and declared extinguished on 25 August 2019.

Number 9 in Spain in 2019, of 102.

Burnt area: 1,264ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 3days; 10 Aug 2019 – 12 Aug 2019
Municipalities hit: 5; municipalities
Started on: 10 Aug; 2019
Heat detections: 111; in a single hotspot: 38 MW
Danger at start: 35; High · FWI index
Average daily power: 463MW; detected power per day, on average

Play back 12 Aug 2019

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Aug12 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

10 Aug 11 Aug 12 Aug

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

The weather it burned in

35°high

70km/h · peak gust

8%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 0.8% of the area of London (13 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

Artenara 1,024 inhabitants · 0.1 km from the town where it started

667 ha reached on 10 Aug

10 %
Tejeda 1,806 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the town

309 ha reached on 11 Aug

3.0 %
Gáldar 25,108 inhabitants · 10.9 km from the town

264 ha reached on 11 Aug

4.2 %
Moya 8,007 inhabitants · 9.0 km from the town

23 ha reached on 11 Aug

0.7 %
Valleseco 3,775 inhabitants · 4.7 km from the town

6 ha reached on 12 Aug

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

Coniferous forest44 %
Sclerophyllous scrub37 %
Agricultural areas9.5 %
Other natural land6.7 %
Artificial surfaces2.8 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 33 %

LIC El Nublo II ES7010039

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 10 August 2019 and burned 1,164 ha (the satellite measured 1,264 ha).

Artenara Las Peñas 10 August 2019 · 12:10 1,164 ha · extinguished on 25 August 2019 · cause: negligence

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 4 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as: Incendio de Artenara · Incendio de Juncalillo · Incendio de Gran Canaria (primer incendio, agosto 2019); Official area reported: 1,500 ha (the satellite measured 1,264 ha); Declared extinguished: 25 August 2019

Sources

La superficie afectada por el incendio forestal de Gran Canaria ya supera las 1.500 hectáreas — Gobierno de Canarias (noticias), 12 August 2019 · official source
Incendios: Extinguido el primero de los tres incendios declarados en Gran Canaria — Público, 25 August 2019
Incendios forestales de Canarias de 2019 — Wikipedia (solo como pista)
Aniversario de los incendios forestales de Gran Canaria de Agosto de 2019 — Tagoror Meteorológico de Canarias

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)
10 Aug	27.1 °C	18 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
11 Aug	24.1 °C	36 %	59 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
12 Aug	21.8 °C	33 %	70 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
13 Aug after	22.8 °C	29 %	63 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
14 Aug after	24.2 °C	27 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
15 Aug after	28.4 °C	21 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
16 Aug after	35.4 °C	12 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
17 Aug after	34.4 °C	8 %	59 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
18 Aug after	31.8 °C	8 %	65 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
19 Aug after	34.6 °C	8 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
20 Aug after	25.7 °C	17 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
21 Aug after	22.5 °C	42 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
22 Aug after	30.3 °C	12 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
23 Aug after	32.8 °C	10 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
24 Aug after	34.3 °C	11 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
25 Aug after	32.2 °C	18 %	65 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 50
26 Aug after	29.5 °C	19 %	66 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
27 Aug after	26.6 °C	30 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
28 Aug after	25.5 °C	29 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
29 Aug after	28.3 °C	17 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
30 Aug after	30.0 °C	12 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 3 Aug 2019

After · 19 Aug 2019

Before After

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 · 111Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Spain ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Artenara fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 10 August 2019 and 12 August 2019: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 10 August 2019 at 12:10 and declared extinguished on 25 August 2019.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,264 hectares (12.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 5 municipalities: Artenara (667 ha, 10 %); Tejeda (309 ha, 3.0 %); Gáldar (264 ha, 4.2 %); Moya (23 ha, 0.7 %); Valleseco (6 ha, 0.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.1 km of Artenara. 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 35.4 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 70 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, class Extreme.
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

MITECO · Incendios forestales ↗
Protección Civil ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What really happened?

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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.

How we know this

Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 111 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 1,164 official ha against 1,264 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
Checked against news and agencies: 4 confirmed sources.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.

Where it burned