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Caserta fire, August 2021 San Prisco, Casagiove, Caserta

Out · last detection 15 Aug 2021, 00:43 UTC

The fire started on 11 August 2021 in Caserta, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 607 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Caserta since 2016 (of 69 with a page). Number 42 in Italy in 2021, of 291.

Burnt area
607ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
11 Aug 2021 – 14 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
4
municipalities
Started on
11 Aug
2021
Heat detections
35
in a single hotspot: 128 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
470MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Aug 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Aug14 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

11121415

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
29km/h · peak gust
35%lowest humidity

It had gone 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 20 Aug.

This area had burned before

43% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 261 ha in 2017, 2 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

  1. San Prisco 12,110 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the town
    217 ha reached on 11 Aug
    28 %
  2. Casagiove 13,013 inhabitants · 1.4 km from the town
    138 ha reached on 11 Aug
    22 %
  3. Caserta 72,805 inhabitants · 3.6 km from the town where it started
    126 ha reached on 11 Aug
    2.3 %
  4. Capua 18,406 inhabitants · 4.4 km from the town
    126 ha reached on 11 Aug
    2.6 %

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

  • Other natural land42 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland30 %
  • Agricultural areas14 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub6.7 %
  • Broadleaved forest5.9 %
  • Artificial surfaces0.7 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 99 %

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)
11 Aug 33.5 °C 41 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
12 Aug 33.6 °C 35 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 Aug 33.0 °C 44 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Aug 33.4 °C 39 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Aug after 32.6 °C 43 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Aug after 30.7 °C 53 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
17 Aug after 29.1 °C 62 % 35 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 21
18 Aug after 28.9 °C 53 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
19 Aug after 29.9 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
20 Aug after 29.9 °C 52 % 30 km/h 1.9 mm Moderate 12

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Aug 2021
After · 21 Aug 2021

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 · 35Every 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 Caserta fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 11 August 2021 and 14 August 2021: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 607 hectares (6.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: San Prisco (217 ha, 28 %); Casagiove (138 ha, 22 %); Caserta (126 ha, 2.3 %); Capua (126 ha, 2.6 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.5 km of San Prisco. 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 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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
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.

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.