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Casagiove fire, July 2017 Casagiove, San Prisco, Caserta

Out · last detection 14 Jul 2017, 11:59 UTC

The fire started on 9 July 2017 in Casagiove, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 496 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Caserta since 2016 (of 69 with a page). Number 41 in Italy in 2017, of 361.

The power measured by the satellite is low (7.3 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…

Suggestions: Caserta · 2021Caserta · 2017Piana di Monte Verna · 2024Valle di Maddaloni · 2017

Burnt area
496ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
6days
9 Jul 2017 – 14 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit
4
municipalities
Started on
9 Jul
2017
Heat detections
3
in a single hotspot: 7 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Average daily power
8MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Jul14 Jul
14 Jul 2017

How it evolved, day by day

13 Jul 2017 · 11 MW · 2 14 Jul 2017 · 6 MW · 1
13 Jul 14 Jul

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
32km/h · peak gust
38%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 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. Casagiove 13,013 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the centre where it started
    182 ha reached on 13 Jul
    29 %
  2. San Prisco 12,110 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    156 ha reached on 14 Jul
    20 %
  3. Caserta 72,805 inhabitants · 3.1 km from the centre
    132 ha
    2.4 %
  4. Casapulla 8,300 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the centre
    27 ha
    9.2 %

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

  • Agricultural areas36 %
  • Other natural land22 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland19 %
  • Artificial surfaces9.8 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub8.0 %
  • Broadleaved forest4.8 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 89 %

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)
12 Jul 30.1 °C 38 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
13 Jul 29.2 °C 60 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
14 Jul 27.6 °C 63 % 26 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 19
15 Jul after 27.9 °C 55 % 28 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 19
16 Jul after 26.4 °C 33 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Jul after 26.9 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 Jul after 27.9 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Jul after 26.9 °C 51 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
20 Jul after 27.7 °C 52 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
21 Jul after 29.2 °C 46 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
22 Jul after 29.5 °C 43 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
23 Jul after 28.5 °C 59 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
24 Jul after 28.1 °C 60 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 25

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Jul 2017
After · 21 Jul 2017

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 12 July 2017 the air beside the fire reached 45 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 26: 1.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak45 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM1051 µg/m³
1011121314151617
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 · 3Every 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 Casagiove fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 9 July 2017 to 14 July 2017 (6 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 July 2017 to 14 July 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 496 hectares (5.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Casagiove (182 ha, 29 %); San Prisco (156 ha, 20 %); Caserta (132 ha, 2.4 %); Casapulla (27 ha, 9.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire reached the centre of San Prisco: the point marking it was inside the burnt area or less than 500 metres from it. That does not mean houses burned.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.1 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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 · 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.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 12 July 2017 to 14 July 2017. 3 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.