How long did the Baltar fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 8 August 2026 and 8 August 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 123 hectares (1.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Baltar (84 ha, 0.9 %); Xinzo de Limia (39 ha, 0.3 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.7 km of Baltar. 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 30.3 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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.

ES · Spain · 2026-08-08 → 2026-08-08

Baltar fire, August 2026 Baltar, Xinzo de Limia

Out · last detection 9 Aug 2026, 13:33 UTC

The fire started on 8 August 2026 in Baltar, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 123 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 101th largest in Ourense since 2016 (of 118 with a page). Number 163 in Spain in 2026, of 195.

The power measured by the satellite is low (22.2 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: 123ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 8 Aug 2026 – 8 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 8 Aug; 2026
Heat detections: 14; in a single hotspot: 22 MW
Danger at start: 37; High · FWI index
Energy released: 151MW; sum of detected power

Play back 9 Aug 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Aug8 Aug

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

30°high

41km/h · peak gust

28%lowest humidity

It had gone 30 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.

What happened to each town

Baltar 849 inhabitants · 3.7 km from the town where it started

84 ha reached on 8 Aug

0.9 %
Xinzo de Limia 9,699 inhabitants · 8.1 km from the town

39 ha reached on 8 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

Scrub and transitional woodland65 %
Other natural land27 %
Broadleaved forest6.4 %
Agricultural areas1.6 %

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

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)
8 Aug	30.3 °C	28 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
9 Aug after	26.5 °C	37 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
10 Aug after	31.1 °C	27 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
11 Aug after	33.8 °C	22 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
12 Aug after	35.0 °C	17 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
13 Aug after	35.2 °C	20 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
14 Aug after	31.6 °C	38 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
15 Aug after	32.8 °C	21 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
16 Aug after	33.2 °C	22 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
17 Aug after	35.2 °C	19 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
18 Aug after	37.5 °C	17 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
19 Aug after	29.1 °C	43 %	42 km/h	0.3 mm	High 36

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 1 Aug 2026

After · 15 Aug 2026

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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 11 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 24 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak24 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1055 µg/m³

Optical depth0.52

WHO 15

6789101112

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 · 14Every 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 Baltar fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 8 August 2026 and 8 August 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 123 hectares (1.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Baltar (84 ha, 0.9 %); Xinzo de Limia (39 ha, 0.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.7 km of Baltar. 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 30.3 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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

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.

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