How long did the Benuza fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 15 October 2017 and 16 October 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 15 October 2017 at 11:38 and declared extinguished on 18 October 2017.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,708 hectares (17.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Benuza (1,708 ha, 9.9 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 5.9 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 22.5 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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 · 2017-10-15 → 2017-10-16

Benuza fire, October 2017 Benuza

Out · last detection 16 Oct 2017, 02:56 UTC

The fire started on 15 October 2017 in Benuza, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,708 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 15 October 2017 at 11:38 and declared extinguished on 18 October 2017.

It is the 13th largest in León since 2016 (of 86 with a page). Number 16 in Spain in 2017, of 144.

Burnt area: 1,708ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 15 Oct 2017 – 16 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 15 Oct; 2017
Heat detections: 26; in a single hotspot: 159 MW
Danger at start: 28; High · FWI index
Energy released: 712MW; sum of detected power

Play back 16 Oct 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Oct16 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1516

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

The weather it burned in

22°high

64km/h · peak gust

29%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.4 mm on 17 Oct.

This area had burned before

12% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 199 ha in 2016.

199 ha Benuza fire, December 2016 362 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Benuza 457 inhabitants · 5.9 km from the town where it started

1,708 ha reached on 15 Oct

9.9 %

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 land72 %
Broadleaved forest28 %

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 October 2017 and burned 1,522 ha (the satellite measured 1,708 ha).

Benuza Las Caladas 15 October 2017 · 11:38 1,522 ha · extinguished on 18 October 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)
15 Oct	22.5 °C	29 %	64 km/h	0.1 mm	High 28
16 Oct	16.9 °C	45 %	64 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 20
17 Oct after	13.1 °C	53 %	72 km/h	4.4 mm	Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 8 Oct 2017

After · 23 Oct 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 16 October 2017 the air beside the fire reached 77 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 40: 2.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak77 µg/m³

Days over the guideline3 days

PM10103 µg/m³

WHO 15

13141516171819

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 · 26Every 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 15 October 2017 and 16 October 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 15 October 2017 at 11:38 and declared extinguished on 18 October 2017.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,708 hectares (17.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Benuza (1,708 ha, 9.9 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 5.9 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 22.5 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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