How long did the Bitonto fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 26 July 2026 and 26 July 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 279 hectares (2.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Toritto (186 ha, 2.5 %); Bitonto (87 ha, 0.5 %); Altamura (7 ha, 0.0 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 12.0 km of Altamura. 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 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, class Very high.

Where does this data come from?

From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Italy (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

IT · Italy · 2026-07-26 → 2026-07-26

Bitonto fire, July 2026 Toritto, Bitonto, Altamura

Out · last detection 26 Jul 2026, 12:55 UTC

The fire started on 26 July 2026 in Bitonto, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 279 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 9th largest in Bari since 2016 (of 21 with a page). Number 79 in Italy in 2026, of 231.

The power measured by the satellite is low (12.2 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: 279ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 26 Jul 2026 – 26 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit: 3; municipalities
Started on: 26 Jul; 2026
Heat detections: 1; in a single hotspot: 12 MW
Danger at start: 46; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 12MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Jul26 Jul

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

34°high

30km/h · peak gust

22%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

3% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7 ha in 2022.

7 ha Toritto fire, June 2022 193 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Toritto 2,128 inhabitants · 16.5 km from the town

186 ha

2.5 %
Bitonto where it started

87 ha reached on 26 Jul

0.5 %
Altamura 69,880 inhabitants · 12.0 km from the town

7 ha

0.0 %

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 land79 %
Agricultural areas19 %
Coniferous forest2.8 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

ZEPA + LIC Murgia Alta IT9120007

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.

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)
26 Jul	34.2 °C	22 %	30 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 46
27 Jul after	33.8 °C	30 %	29 km/h	0.6 mm	High 36
28 Jul after	29.5 °C	54 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
29 Jul after	31.4 °C	40 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
30 Jul after	33.0 °C	28 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
31 Jul after	34.0 °C	21 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
1 Aug after	34.3 °C	24 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
2 Aug after	34.7 °C	22 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
3 Aug after	35.0 °C	28 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
4 Aug after	36.3 °C	18 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
5 Aug after	35.1 °C	30 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 19 Jul 2026

After · 2 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 29 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 16 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak16 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1031 µg/m³

Optical depth0.58

WHO 15

242526272829

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 · 1Every 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 Italy ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bitonto fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 26 July 2026 and 26 July 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 279 hectares (2.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Toritto (186 ha, 2.5 %); Bitonto (87 ha, 0.5 %); Altamura (7 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 12.0 km of Altamura. 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 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?: From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Italy (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 · 1515

Protezione Civile ↗
Carabinieri Forestali (1515) ↗

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 · 1515.

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 ADM4 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License). 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