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ES · Spain · –

Casas de Millán fire, August 2026 Casas de Millán, Cañaveral, Mirabel

Out · last detection 2 Aug 2026, 02:41 UTC

The fire started on 1 August 2026 in Casas de Millán, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,215 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 13th largest in Cáceres since 2016 (of 70 with a page). Number 24 in Spain in 2026, of 196.

Burnt area
1,215ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
≈ 2days
1 Aug 2026 – 2 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
1 Aug
2026
Heat detections
63
in a single hotspot: 187 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
2.0GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Aug2 Aug
2 Aug 2026

How it evolved, day by day

1 Aug 2026 · 3,726 MW · 39 2 Aug 2026 · 215 MW · 24
1 Aug 2 Aug

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

Fire front film How it spread from one satellite pass to the next (3 passes) and with what wind. Watch the film

The weather it burned in

36°high
35km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 37 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

3% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 40 ha in 2021.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 0.8% of the area of London (12 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Casas de Millán 536 inhabitants · fire reached the centre where it started
    870 ha reached on 1 Aug
    5.7 %
  2. Cañaveral 995 inhabitants · 4.0 km from the centre
    258 ha reached on 1 Aug
    3.0 %
  3. Mirabel 620 inhabitants · 2.8 km from the centre
    90 ha reached on 2 Aug
    1.8 %

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

  • Sclerophyllous scrub56 %
  • Agricultural areas20 %
  • Broadleaved forest17 %
  • Other natural land6.6 %
  • Artificial surfaces1.1 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 53 %

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 2025
Built-up area0.88 ha
Residents≈ 30

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.88 hectares of built-up land and about 30 residents (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

Checked against the press

Checked on 30 September 2026

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

Also known as
Incendio de Cañaveral · Incendio de Casas de Millán/Cañaveral · Incendio de Grimaldo
Official area reported: 1,352 ha (the satellite measured 1,215 ha)
Declared under control (not yet extinguished): 4 August 2026

Sources

Official figures are measured differently from satellite ones and sometimes cover only part of the fire.

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)

Started with Very dry air: 15 % of the area in Spain

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
1 Aug 36.3 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Aug 33.6 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Aug after 30.0 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Aug after 30.9 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Aug after 33.4 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Aug after 35.9 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Aug after 36.6 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Aug after 36.7 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Aug after 32.6 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Aug after 33.1 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Aug after 34.2 °C 18 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Aug after 37.2 °C 14 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 42.7, a minimum humidity of 14% and 37 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 24.

FWI at the start 42.7
Minimum humidity 14 %
Days without rain 37
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Guijo de Galisteo fire, July 2020
124 ha 1 day FWI 42.9 Min. humidity 16 % 29 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

1 day
median duration
176 ha
median area
12 %
went past 1,000 ha
1.7 mm
rain at the end (median; 9 of 24 had it)

It was 6.9 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 2 days, against 1 day.

Only 3 of its 24 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 15 of 24, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.7 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
35km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 2 Aug, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 9 of 24, with a median of 1.7 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Jul 2026
After · 9 Aug 2026

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 30 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 10 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak10 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1018 µg/m³
Optical depth0.16
30 Jul1 Aug3 Aug5 Aug
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 · 63Every 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 Spain

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Casas de Millán fire last?
The official perimeter only gives the start date (1 August 2026). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 2 August 2026 (2 days from 1 August 2026), the last day with detections before more than 10 days in a row without any, so it is approximate.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,215 hectares (12.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Casas de Millán (870 ha, 5.7 %); Cañaveral (258 ha, 3.0 %); Mirabel (90 ha, 1.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Casas de Millán and reached its centre: 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 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 24. Their median duration was 1 day and their median area 176 ha; 12 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 3 of its 24 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 15 of 24, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.7 mm.

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.

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • The official perimeter has no end date: the end is the last day with VIIRS detections inside the perimeter before a gap of more than 10 days (150 days at most), so it is approximate. 63 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Checked against news and agencies: 4 confirmed sources.
  • 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.

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 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.