Cangas del Narcea fire, April 2017 Cangas del Narcea
The fire started on 7 April 2017 in Cangas del Narcea, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 324 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 45th largest in Asturias since 2016 (of 225 with a page). Number 73 in Spain in 2017, of 144.
The power measured by the satellite is low (23.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 324ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 8days
- 7 Apr 2017 – 14 Apr 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 7 Apr
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 28
- in a single hotspot: 23 MW
- Danger at start
- 2
- Very low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 64MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 15 Apr.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
324 ha reached on 11 Apr0.4 %
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 land80 %
- Broadleaved forest20 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- LIC Sierra de los Lagos ES1200014
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.
Several official records match this area
According to EGIF (MITECO), 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 552 ha (the satellite measured 324 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
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 Cangas del Narcea Fuentes de las Montañas 7 April 2017 · 11:53 150 ha · extinguished on 8 April 2017 · cause: unknown
- 2 Cangas del Narcea Fuentes de las Montañas 11 April 2017 · 17:26 402 ha · extinguished on 15 April 2017 · cause: arson
Total according to EGIF (MITECO): 552 ha, 170 % of the 324 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Apr | 17.2 °C | 46 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 8 Apr | 19.5 °C | 38 % | 30 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very low 4 |
| 9 Apr | 17.6 °C | 47 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 10 Apr | 16.7 °C | 57 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 11 Apr | 15.6 °C | 52 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 12 Apr | 17.4 °C | 43 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 13 Apr | 17.3 °C | 43 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 14 Apr | 13.6 °C | 57 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very low 5 |
| 15 Apr after | 11.4 °C | 64 % | 34 km/h | 1.0 mm | Very low 2 |
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 10 April 2017 the air beside the fire reached 26 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.4 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)
Detections table · 28Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,251 haIbias15 October 2017 · 3 days · 10 km away
- 2,985 haIbias15 October 2017 · 3 days · 10 km away
- 2,362 haAllande29 March 2023 · 3 days · 17 km away
- 4,285 haVillablinoAugust 2025 · 11 days · 29 km away
- 8,001 haAnllares del Sil Páramo del SilAugust 2025 · 12 days · 31 km away
- 2,434 haPeranzanesSeptember 2016 · 7 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Cangas del Narcea fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 7 April 2017 to 14 April 2017 (8 days). The perimeter dates it from 7 April 2017 to 10 April 2017.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 324 hectares (3.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Cangas del Narcea (324 ha, 0.4 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Cangas del Narcea and came within 13.4 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 19.5 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 4, 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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 7 April 2017 to 10 April 2017. 28 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 552 official ha against 324 ha of perimeter; similar, but with reservations.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.