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Beneixama fire, July 2019 Beneixama

Out · last detection 15 Jul 2019, 13:34 UTC

The fire started on 15 July 2019 in Beneixama, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 905 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 15 July 2019 at 14:05 and declared extinguished on 19 July 2019.

It is the 2th largest in Alacant / Alicante since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 11 in Spain in 2019, of 102.

Burnt area
905ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
15 Jul 2019 – 15 Jul 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
15 Jul
2019
Heat detections
28
in a single hotspot: 349 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
3.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Jul15 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

15

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
54km/h · peak gust
20%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

  1. Beneixama 1,696 inhabitants · 2.2 km from the town where it started
    906 ha reached on 15 Jul
    26 %

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 land58 %
  • Coniferous forest27 %
  • Agricultural areas9.0 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub4.6 %
  • Artificial surfaces1.2 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 43 %

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 July 2019 and burned 841 ha (the satellite measured 905 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.

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 Jul 32.8 °C 20 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Jul after 28.2 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Jul after 29.1 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Jul after 29.1 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Jul after 31.1 °C 19 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Jul after 31.5 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Jul after 29.4 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Jul after 32.9 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Jul after 33.5 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Jul after 32.6 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Jul after 31.6 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Jul 2019
After · 22 Jul 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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 16 July 2019 the air beside the fire reached 20 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak20 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1032 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 · 28Every 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 Beneixama fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 15 July 2019 and 15 July 2019: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 15 July 2019 at 14:05 and declared extinguished on 19 July 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 905 hectares (9.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Beneixama (906 ha, 26 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.2 km of Beneixama. 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 32.8 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.