Skip to content
worldfires
ES · Spain · →

Artenara fire, 17 August 2019 Artenara, Gáldar, Tejeda

Out · last detection 22 Aug 2019, 02:03 UTC

The fire started on 17 August 2019 in Artenara, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 8,867 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 8 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 17 August 2019 at 15:47 and declared extinguished on 26 September 2019.

The largest in Spain in 2019, of 102.

Burnt area
8,867ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
6days
17 Aug 2019 – 22 Aug 2019
Municipalities hit
8
municipalities
Started on
17 Aug
2019
Heat detections
345
in a single hotspot: 283 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
6.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Aug 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Aug22 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1819202122

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

The weather it burned in

24°high
57km/h · peak gust
39%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 111 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Artenara 1,024 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town where it started
    3,409 ha reached on 18 Aug
    51 %
  2. Gáldar 25,108 inhabitants · 6.0 km from the town
    1,330 ha reached on 18 Aug
    21 %
  3. Tejeda 1,806 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    1,288 ha reached on 18 Aug
    12 %
  4. Agaete 5,683 inhabitants · 2.7 km from the town
    1,159 ha reached on 18 Aug
    26 %
  5. Valleseco 3,775 inhabitants · 1.4 km from the town
    808 ha reached on 18 Aug
    36 %
  6. Moya 8,007 inhabitants · 6.2 km from the town
    635 ha reached on 18 Aug
    20 %
  7. Santa María de Guía de Gran Canaria 14,311 inhabitants · 5.8 km from the town
    221 ha reached on 18 Aug
    5.2 %
  8. Vega de San Mateo 7,899 inhabitants · 4.8 km from the town
    51 ha reached on 18 Aug
    1.3 %

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 forest39 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub33 %
  • Other natural land13 %
  • Agricultural areas8.9 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland5.2 %
  • Broadleaved forest1.0 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 60 %

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 17 August 2019 and burned 9,180 ha (the satellite measured 8,867 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
incendio de Gran Canaria · incendio de Artenara-Valleseco · Gran Canaria wildfire 2019
Official area reported: 9,225 ha (the satellite measured 8,867 ha)
Declared extinguished: 26 September 2019

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)
17 Aug 24.4 °C 40 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Aug 22.6 °C 41 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
19 Aug 22.9 °C 39 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
20 Aug 19.8 °C 55 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
21 Aug 18.3 °C 60 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
22 Aug 20.0 °C 50 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
23 Aug after 21.7 °C 46 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
24 Aug after 23.1 °C 42 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
25 Aug after 22.1 °C 46 % 51 km/h 0.2 mm High 28
26 Aug after 20.5 °C 56 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
27 Aug after 19.4 °C 53 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
28 Aug after 19.6 °C 55 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
29 Aug after 20.1 °C 55 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
30 Aug after 21.6 °C 47 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
31 Aug after 19.1 °C 58 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
1 Sept after 18.4 °C 58 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 24

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Aug 2019
After · 29 Aug 2019

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 · 345Every 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 Artenara fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 17 August 2019 and 22 August 2019: 6 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 17 August 2019 at 15:47 and declared extinguished on 26 September 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 8,867 hectares (88.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 8 municipalities: Artenara (3,409 ha, 51 %); Gáldar (1,330 ha, 21 %); Tejeda (1,288 ha, 12 %); Agaete (1,159 ha, 26 %); Valleseco (808 ha, 36 %); Moya (635 ha, 20 %); Santa María de Guía de Gran Canaria (221 ha, 5.2 %); Vega de San Mateo (51 ha, 1.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 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 24.4 °C, humidity dropped to 39 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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.