Cabrales fire, 29 March 2023 Cabrales
The fire started on 29 March 2023 in Cabrales, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 218 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 3 recorded fires was detected on 29 March 2023 at 11:21 and declared extinguished on 31 March 2023.
It is the 82th largest in Asturias since 2016 (of 225 with a page). Number 58 in Spain in 2023, of 124.
Compare with…
We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.
- Burnt area
- 218ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 29 Mar 2023 – 30 Mar 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 29 Mar
- 2023
- Danger at start
- 2
- Very low · FWI index
- Natura 2000
- 0%
- of the perimeter is protected land
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.3 mm on 1 Apr.
This area had burned before
21% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 46 ha in 2021.
What happened to each town
-
218 ha0.9 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
What burned
- Other natural land98 %
- Broadleaved forest1.8 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 0 %
- LIC Río Cares-Deva ES1200035
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.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
Complex of 3 fires according to EGIF (MITECO)
According to EGIF (MITECO), 3 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 264 ha (the satellite measured 218 ha).
EGIF (MITECO) records each fire that started at a different time or place separately; the satellite sees a single burned area, so this page groups them together. The numbers on the map show where each one started.
- 1 Cabrales Poncebos 24 March 2023 · 19:50 105 ha · extinguished on 25 March 2023 · cause: arson
- 2 Cabrales 29 March 2023 · 10:12 16 ha · extinguished on 5 April 2023 · cause: arson
- 3 Cabrales 29 March 2023 · 11:21 143 ha · extinguished on 31 March 2023 · cause: arson
Total according to EGIF (MITECO): 264 ha, 121 % of the 218 ha in the satellite perimeter.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Mar | 22.9 °C | 31 % | 52 km/h | 1.3 mm | Very low 2 |
| 30 Mar | 16.7 °C | 55 % | 52 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very low 2 |
| 31 Mar after | 14.9 °C | 55 % | 49 km/h | 0.5 mm | Very low 3 |
| 1 Apr after | 10.6 °C | 76 % | 70 km/h | 7.3 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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 31 March 2023 the air beside the fire reached 33 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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)
Other fires nearby
- 1,181 haCabralesAugust 2025 · 6 days · 5 km away
- 990 haParres28 March 2023 · 4 days · 26 km away
- 19,112 haBarniedo de la Reina Boca de HuérganoAugust 2025 · 15 days · 28 km away
- 732 haBurónSeptember 2025 · 2 days · 29 km away
- 715 haPonga28 March 2023 · 4 days · 32 km away
- 1,306 haBoca de HuérganoAugust 2022 · 7 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Cabrales fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 29 March 2023 and 30 March 2023: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 3 recorded fires was detected on 29 March 2023 at 11:21 and declared extinguished on 31 March 2023.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 218 hectares (2.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Cabrales (218 ha, 0.9 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Cabrales and came within 2.9 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 22.9 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 2, class Very low.
- 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 264 official ha against 218 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.