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Borore fire, July 2016 Sedilo, Dualchi, Borore

Out · last detection 3 Jul 2016, 01:28 UTC

The fire started on 1 July 2016 in Borore, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 5,048 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 7 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Nuoro since 2016 (of 36 with a page). The largest in Italy in 2016, of 78.

Burnt area
5,048ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
3days
1 Jul 2016 – 3 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
7
municipalities
Started on
1 Jul
2016
Heat detections
32
in a single hotspot: 129 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Jul3 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

123

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
49km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 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. Sedilo 1,956 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    2,072 ha reached on 1 Jul
    30 %
  2. Dualchi 574 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the town
    1,008 ha reached on 2 Jul
    43 %
  3. Borore where it started
    912 ha reached on 1 Jul
    22 %
  4. Birori 498 inhabitants · 2.6 km from the town
    391 ha reached on 1 Jul
    22 %
  5. Aidomaggiore 394 inhabitants · 2.6 km from the town
    336 ha reached on 2 Jul
    8.1 %
  6. Noragugume 278 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the town
    217 ha
    8.1 %
  7. Bortigali 1,214 inhabitants · 3.2 km from the town
    119 ha
    1.8 %

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

  • Agricultural areas91 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub4.4 %
  • Other natural land4.3 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 96 %

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 CFVA Sardegna, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 4,294 ha (the satellite measured 5,048 ha).

Regione Autonoma della Sardegna, Corpo Forestale e di Vigilanza Ambientale: perimetri delle aree percorse dal fuoco (CC BY 4.0). 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 29 September 2026

We checked this page against 4 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
Incendio di Borore · Incendio Dualchi · Mega incendio nel Marghine

Sources

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)
1 Jul 34.9 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
2 Jul 32.9 °C 31 % 43 km/h 2.6 mm Moderate 19
3 Jul 29.8 °C 31 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Jul after 32.8 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Jul after 33.4 °C 22 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Jul after 32.4 °C 31 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
7 Jul after 32.8 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Jul after 32.5 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Jul after 34.0 °C 26 % 49 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 41
10 Jul after 34.7 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Jul after 35.7 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Jul after 36.3 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Jul after 31.6 °C 31 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Jun 2016
After · 10 Jul 2016

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 32Every 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 Italy ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Borore fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 1 July 2016 and 3 July 2016: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 5,048 hectares (50.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 7 municipalities: Sedilo (2,072 ha, 30 %); Dualchi (1,008 ha, 43 %); Borore (912 ha, 22 %); Birori (391 ha, 22 %); Aidomaggiore (336 ha, 8.1 %); Noragugume (217 ha, 8.1 %); Bortigali (119 ha, 1.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Sedilo. 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 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class 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

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
What do you think is wrong?

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.