How long did the Benuza fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 20 April 2017 and 22 April 2017: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 20 April 2017 at 18:53 and declared extinguished on 23 April 2017.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 908 hectares (9.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Benuza (881 ha, 5.1 %); Priaranza del Bierzo (29 ha, 0.8 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.8 km of Benuza. 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 19.4 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 77 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.

ES · Spain · 2017-04-20 → 2017-04-22

Benuza fire, April 2017 Benuza, Priaranza del Bierzo

Out · last detection 22 Apr 2017, 03:14 UTC

The fire started on 20 April 2017 in Benuza, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 908 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 20 April 2017 at 18:53 and declared extinguished on 23 April 2017.

It is the 21th largest in León since 2016 (of 86 with a page). Number 31 in Spain in 2017, of 144.

Burnt area: 908ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 3days; 20 Apr 2017 – 22 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 20 Apr; 2017
Heat detections: 81; in a single hotspot: 49 MW
Danger at start: 17; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 819MW; sum of detected power

Play back 22 Apr 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Apr22 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

202122

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

The weather it burned in

19°high

77km/h · peak gust

17%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 24 Apr.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Benuza 457 inhabitants · 3.8 km from the town where it started

881 ha reached on 20 Apr

5.1 %
Priaranza del Bierzo

29 ha reached on 20 Apr

0.8 %

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 land99 %
Scrub and transitional woodland1.4 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 0 %

ZEPA Montes Aquilanos ES4130022
LIC Montes Aquilanos y Sierra de Teleno ES4130117

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 20 April 2017 and burned 798 ha (the satellite measured 908 ha).

Benuza Talladera 20 April 2017 · 18:53 798 ha · extinguished on 23 April 2017 · cause: arson

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)
20 Apr	17.6 °C	23 %	77 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
21 Apr	19.1 °C	17 %	65 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
22 Apr	19.4 °C	24 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
23 Apr after	20.9 °C	21 %	36 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 17
24 Apr after	19.4 °C	38 %	50 km/h	1.4 mm	Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 13 Apr 2017

After · 29 Apr 2017

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 24 April 2017 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

PM1030 µg/m³

WHO 15

1819202122232425

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 · 81Every 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 Benuza fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 20 April 2017 and 22 April 2017: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 20 April 2017 at 18:53 and declared extinguished on 23 April 2017.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 908 hectares (9.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Benuza (881 ha, 5.1 %); Priaranza del Bierzo (29 ha, 0.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.8 km of Benuza. 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 19.4 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 77 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

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