Bronte fire, July 2017 Maletto, Bronte
The fire started on 13 July 2017 in Bronte, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 207 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 33th largest in Catania since 2016 (of 76 with a page). Number 163 in Italy in 2017, of 361.
The power measured by the satellite is low (12.9 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
- 207ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 13 Jul 2017 – 13 Jul 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 13 Jul
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 4
- in a single hotspot: 13 MW
- Danger at start
- 33
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 50MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
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
It had gone 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 22.8 mm on 16 Jul.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Maletto 3,599 inhabitants · 1.5 km from the town113 ha reached on 13 Jul2.8 %
-
Bronte where it started94 ha reached on 13 Jul0.4 %
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 areas69 %
- Other natural land26 %
- Broadleaved forest5.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Jul | 30.4 °C | 30 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 14 Jul after | 28.8 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 15 Jul after | 27.6 °C | 39 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 16 Jul after | 22.8 °C | 50 % | 32 km/h | 22.8 mm | Very low 0 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 4Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 1,156 haRandazzoAugust 2019 · 2 days · 3 km away
- 2,005 haSanta Domenica VittoriaJuly 2021 · 4 days · 10 km away
- 3,762 haRegalbutoJuly 2021 · 4 days · 27 km away
- 1,371 haMongiuffi MeliaAugust 2026 · 4 days · 33 km away
- 1,119 haPattiJune 2017 · 3 days · 33 km away
- 1,331 haPattiJuly 2023 · 2 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bronte fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 13 July 2017 and 13 July 2017: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 207 hectares (2.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Maletto (113 ha, 2.8 %); Bronte (94 ha, 0.4 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.5 km of Maletto. 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 30.4 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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
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.