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ES · Spain · –

Chandrexa de Queixa fire, 13 September 2020 Chandrexa de Queixa, Laza

Out · last detection 16 Sept 2020, 03:08 UTC

The fire started on 13 September 2020 in Chandrexa de Queixa, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 732 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 13 September 2020 at 16:07 and declared extinguished on 17 September 2020.

It is the 31th largest in Ourense since 2016 (of 118 with a page). Number 12 in Spain in 2020, of 89.

Burnt area
732ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
5days
13 Sept 2020 – 17 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
13 Sept
2020
Heat detections
51
in a single hotspot: 116 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Average daily power
146MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Sept17 Sept
16 Sept 2020

How it evolved, day by day

13 Sept 2020 · 232 MW · 2 14 Sept 2020 · 116 MW · 24 15 Sept 2020 · 175 MW · 15 16 Sept 2020 · 62 MW · 10
13 Sept 14 Sept 15 Sept 16 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

26°high
57km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.0 mm on 18 Sept.

This area had burned before

8% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 56 ha in 2017.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 0.5% of the area of London (7.3 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. Chandrexa de Queixa 467 inhabitants · 0.7 km from the centre where it started
    732 ha reached on 13 Sept
    4.3 %
  2. Laza 1,156 inhabitants · 13.0 km from the centre
    0 ha
    0.0 %

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 land96 %
  • Broadleaved forest3.7 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

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.

Official record

According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 13 September 2020 and burned 706 ha (the satellite measured 732 ha).

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)
13 Sept 26.2 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
14 Sept 20.5 °C 45 % 57 km/h 10.3 mm Moderate 12
15 Sept 19.6 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
16 Sept 20.5 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
17 Sept 20.4 °C 42 % 53 km/h 9.7 mm Moderate 13
18 Sept after 17.2 °C 42 % 38 km/h 3.0 mm Very low 0

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 30.7, a minimum humidity of 21% and 23 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 19.

FWI at the start 30.7
Minimum humidity 21 %
Days without rain 23
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Macedo de Cavaleiros fire, September 2017
690 ha 5 days FWI 30.2 Min. humidity 21 % 88 km away, in 2017

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

What happened to them

2 days
median duration
492 ha
median area
11 %
went past 1,000 ha
1.5 mm
rain at the end (median; 16 of 19 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (732 ha against a median of 492 ha) and lasted 5 days, against 2 days.

In 3 of 19, 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 1.5 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

3.0 mmfirst rain
18 Septthe day after it ended
57km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 17 Sept, and on 18 Sept 3.0 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 16 of 19, with a median of 1.5 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 · 6 Sept 2020
After · 24 Sept 2020

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 14 September 2020 the air beside the fire reached 48 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 27: 1.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak48 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1058 µg/m³
11 Sept13 Sept15 Sept17 Sept19 Sept
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 · 51Every 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 Chandrexa de Queixa fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 13 September 2020 and 17 September 2020: 5 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 13 September 2020 at 16:07 and declared extinguished on 17 September 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 732 hectares (7.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chandrexa de Queixa (732 ha, 4.3 %); Laza (0 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Chandrexa de Queixa and came within 0.7 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 26.2 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, class 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: 19. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 492 ha; 11 % went past 1,000 ha. In 3 of 19, 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 1.5 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.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 51 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 706 official ha against 732 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
  • 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 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.