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Bejís fire, August 2022 Bejís, Sacañet, El Toro

Out · last detection 20 Aug 2022, 13:10 UTC

The fire started on 15 August 2022 in Bejís, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 19,362 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 12 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 15 August 2022 at 15:55 and declared extinguished on 13 September 2022.

It is the largest fire in Castelló / Castellón since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 3 in Spain in 2022, of 196.

Burnt area
19,362ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
8days
15 Aug 2022 – 22 Aug 2022
Municipalities hit
12
municipalities
Started on
15 Aug
2022
Heat detections
920
in a single hotspot: 692 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
25.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Aug 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug22 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1617181920

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
54km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 24 Aug.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 87 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

  1. Bejís 400 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town where it started
    4,248 ha reached on 16 Aug
    100 %
  2. Sacañet 67 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    2,453 ha reached on 17 Aug
    81 %
  3. El Toro 256 inhabitants · 1.0 km from the town
    2,317 ha reached on 16 Aug
    21 %
  4. Altura 3,849 inhabitants · 9.0 km from the town
    1,986 ha reached on 17 Aug
    15 %
  5. Teresa 254 inhabitants · 0.2 km from the town
    1,727 ha reached on 17 Aug
    87 %
  6. Viver 1,729 inhabitants · 2.7 km from the town
    1,705 ha reached on 17 Aug
    34 %
  7. Torás 271 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    1,678 ha reached on 17 Aug
    100 %
  8. Jérica 1,764 inhabitants · 5.2 km from the town
    1,583 ha reached on 17 Aug
    20 %
  9. Andilla 338 inhabitants · 3.0 km from the town
    747 ha reached on 17 Aug
    5.2 %
  10. Alcublas 710 inhabitants · 1.5 km from the town
    604 ha reached on 17 Aug
    14 %
  11. Barracas 188 inhabitants · 5.1 km from the town
    302 ha reached on 17 Aug
    7.2 %
  12. Abejuela 62 inhabitants · 8.6 km from the town
    35 ha
    0.4 %

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 forest37 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub25 %
  • Other natural land14 %
  • Agricultural areas12 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland8.5 %
  • Broadleaved forest3.5 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 52 %

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 August 2022 and burned 16,836 ha (the satellite measured 19,362 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 Bejís · incendio del tren de Bejís · incendio Bejís-Torás
Official area reported: 19,000 ha (the satellite measured 19,362 ha)
Declared extinguished: 13 September 2022

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)
15 Aug 31.6 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Aug 31.0 °C 18 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
17 Aug 29.2 °C 15 % 50 km/h 4.7 mm Moderate 18
18 Aug 26.2 °C 21 % 54 km/h 0.3 mm High 23
19 Aug 29.1 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Aug 29.1 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Aug 31.8 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Aug 28.0 °C 41 % 43 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
23 Aug after 28.3 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Aug after 30.5 °C 40 % 32 km/h 1.3 mm Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Aug 2022
After · 29 Aug 2022

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 17 August 2022 the air beside the fire reached 53 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 22: 1.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak53 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1069 µg/m³
Optical depth1.75
13141516171819202122232425
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 · 920Every 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 Bejís fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 15 August 2022 and 22 August 2022: 8 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 15 August 2022 at 15:55 and declared extinguished on 13 September 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 19,362 hectares (193.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 12 municipalities: Bejís (4,248 ha, 100 %); Sacañet (2,453 ha, 81 %); El Toro (2,317 ha, 21 %); Altura (1,986 ha, 15 %); Teresa (1,727 ha, 87 %); Viver (1,705 ha, 34 %); Torás (1,678 ha, 100 %); Jérica (1,583 ha, 20 %); Andilla (747 ha, 5.2 %); Alcublas (604 ha, 14 %); Barracas (302 ha, 7.2 %); Abejuela (35 ha, 0.4 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Bejís. 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 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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

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
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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.