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As Neves fire, October 2017 As Neves, Salvaterra de Miño, A Cañiza

Out · last detection 15 Oct 2017, 14:39 UTC

The fire started on 15 October 2017 in As Neves, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 3,333 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 15 October 2017 at 14:03 and declared extinguished on 19 October 2017.

It is the 2th largest in Pontevedra since 2016 (of 33 with a page). Number 5 in Spain in 2017, of 144.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Arbo · 2016Monção · 2017Pazos de Borbén · 2017Arcos de Valdevez · 2016

Burnt area
3,333ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
15 Oct 2017 – 15 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
15 Oct
2017
Heat detections
84
in a single hotspot: 393 MW
Danger at start
17
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
6.3GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Oct15 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

15 Oct 2017 · 6,310 MW · 84

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
50km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 10.5 mm on 16 Oct.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 16 ha in 2016.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.1% of the area of London (33 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

  1. As Neves 3,657 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town where it started
    3,226 ha reached on 15 Oct
    49 %
  2. Salvaterra de Miño 10,617 inhabitants · 4.4 km from the town
    86 ha reached on 15 Oct
    1.4 %
  3. A Cañiza 4,990 inhabitants · 9.8 km from the town
    22 ha
    0.2 %

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 land29 %
  • Broadleaved forest28 %
  • Agricultural areas14 %
  • Mixed forest9.4 %
  • Artificial surfaces7.2 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland6.5 %
  • Coniferous forest6.4 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 2 %

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 15 October 2017 and burned 3,085 ha (the satellite measured 3,333 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 4 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
Incendios de As Neves y Salvaterra · Lumes de As Neves · Las Nieves

Sources

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)
15 Oct 29.7 °C 24 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
16 Oct after 21.6 °C 40 % 53 km/h 10.5 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Oct 2017
After · 22 Oct 2017

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 16 October 2017 the air beside the fire reached 109 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 63: 4.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak109 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM10141 µg/m³
131415161718
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 · 84Every 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 As Neves fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 15 October 2017 and 15 October 2017: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 15 October 2017 at 14:03 and declared extinguished on 19 October 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 3,333 hectares (33.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: As Neves (3,226 ha, 49 %); Salvaterra de Miño (86 ha, 1.4 %); A Cañiza (22 ha, 0.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of As Neves. 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 29.7 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 17, class Moderate.
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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 84 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 3,085 official ha against 3,333 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.