Aspropyrgos fire, August 2023 Ασπρόπυργος · Fyli, Aspropyrgos, Acharnes
The fire started on 21 August 2023 in Aspropyrgos, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 6,057 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 6th largest in Attica since 2016 (of 32 with a page). Number 5 in Greece in 2023, of 34.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 6,057ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 7days
- 21 Aug 2023 – 27 Aug 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 21 Aug
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 419
- in a single hotspot: 242 MW
- Danger at start
- 60
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 1.4GW
- detected power per day, on average
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 55 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 4 Sept.
This area had burned before
2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 27 ha in 2020, 69 ha in 2021.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Athens boundary: geoBoundaries · geoBoundaries, Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
4,220 ha reached on 22 Aug39 %
-
1,464 ha reached on 21 Aug15 %
-
382 ha reached on 23 Aug2.6 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
What burned
- Scrub and transitional woodland34 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub21 %
- Mixed forest20 %
- Coniferous forest12 %
- Agricultural areas8.0 %
- Other natural land2.6 %
- Artificial surfaces2.4 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 47 %
- ZEPA + LIC OROS PARNITHA GR3000001
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.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Inside the perimeter there were about 32 hectares of built-up land and about 1,200 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
Checked against the press
Checked on 30 September 2026We checked this page against 4 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:
- Also known as
- Φωτιά στη Φυλή · Πυρκαγιά στην Πάρνηθα · Fyli/Parnitha fire
- Official area reported: 6,433 ha (the satellite measured 6,057 ha)
Sources
- Overview 2023: Greece - Lessons Not Learned — IAWF / Wildfire Magazine, 8 February 2024
- Απολογισμός Πυρκαγιών 2023 — dasarxeio.com, 3 September 2023
- Φωτιά στη Φυλή: Το πριν και το μετά την καταστροφή — in.gr, 1 September 2023
- Απελπισία για όσα χάθηκαν στην Πάρνηθα - Το «κυνήγι» των εμπρηστών και η μάχη με τις αναζωπυρώσεις — ERT News, 25 August 2023
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Aug | 34.1 °C | 20 % | 71 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 22 Aug | 33.7 °C | 25 % | 67 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 23 Aug | 33.1 °C | 29 % | 57 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 24 Aug | 34.1 °C | 27 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 25 Aug | 33.8 °C | 29 % | 56 km/h | 0.6 mm | Very high 42 |
| 26 Aug | 31.3 °C | 33 % | 55 km/h | 3.9 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 27 Aug | 32.7 °C | 27 % | 49 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 35 |
| 28 Aug after | 32.2 °C | 36 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 29 Aug after | 31.3 °C | 36 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 30 Aug after | 32.3 °C | 26 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 31 Aug after | 31.1 °C | 29 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 1 Sept after | 29.0 °C | 32 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 2 Sept after | 31.2 °C | 29 % | 52 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 42 |
| 3 Sept after | 30.4 °C | 26 % | 61 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 4 Sept after | 26.3 °C | 37 % | 53 km/h | 1.4 mm | High 26 |
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 23 August 2023 the air beside the fire reached 46 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 25: 1.7 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 · 419Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 11,662 haDervenochoria Μάνδρας - ΕιδυλλίαςJuly 2023 · 7 days · 15 km away
- 8,454 haVarympompi ΑχαρνέςAugust 2021 · 5 days · 16 km away
- 10,971 haVarnavas ΜαραθώναςAugust 2024 · 8 days · 22 km away
- 10,175 haVilia Μάνδρας - ΕιδυλλίαςAugust 2021 · 8 days · 27 km away
- 13,192 haMandra-Eidyllia Μάνδρας - Ειδυλλίας31 July 2026 · 6 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Aspropyrgos fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 21 August 2023 to 27 August 2023 (7 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 August 2023 to 27 August 2023.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 6,057 hectares (60.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Fyli (4,220 ha, 39 %); Aspropyrgos (1,464 ha, 15 %); Acharnes (382 ha, 2.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.1 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 71 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Greece (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 · 199 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 22 August 2023 to 27 August 2023. 419 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Checked against news and agencies: 4 confirmed sources.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). 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.