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ES · Spain · –

Chandrexa de Queixa fire, September 2021 Chandrexa de Queixa

Out · last detection 7 Sept 2021, 01:53 UTC

The fire started on 6 September 2021 in Chandrexa de Queixa, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 150 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 6 September 2021 at 11:38 and declared extinguished on 7 September 2021.

It is the 94th largest in Ourense since 2016 (of 118 with a page). Number 83 in Spain in 2021, of 120.

The power measured by the satellite is low (1.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
150ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
6 Sept 2021 – 7 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
6 Sept
2021
Heat detections
2
in a single hotspot: 2 MW
Danger at start
17
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
3MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Sept7 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

7 Sept 2021 · 3 MW · 2

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

The weather it burned in

24°high
66km/h · peak gust
32%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.6 mm on 8 Sept.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Chandrexa de Queixa 467 inhabitants · 5.0 km from the centre where it started
    149 ha reached on 7 Sept
    0.9 %

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 land89 %
  • Broadleaved forest11 %

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

Complex of 2 fires according to EGIF (MITECO)

According to EGIF (MITECO), 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 142 ha (the satellite measured 150 ha).

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.

When each one burned

1 13 ha 2 129 ha
5 Sept7 Sept
arson rekindling
  1. 1 Chandrexa de Queixa Requeixo 5 September 2021 · 18:09 13 ha · extinguished on 6 September 2021 · cause: arson
  2. 2 Chandrexa de Queixa Requeixo 6 September 2021 · 11:38 129 ha · extinguished on 7 September 2021 · cause: rekindling

Total according to EGIF (MITECO): 142 ha, 95 % of the 150 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)

Started with Strong wind: 22 % of the area in Spain

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
6 Sept 24.4 °C 32 % 66 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 17
7 Sept 18.9 °C 57 % 55 km/h 5.8 mm Very low 2
8 Sept after 15.7 °C 73 % 48 km/h 2.6 mm Very low 0

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 17.2, a minimum humidity of 32% and 3 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 24.

FWI at the start 17.2
Minimum humidity 32 %
Days without rain 3
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Verín fire, July 2020
165 ha 1 day FWI 18.1 Min. humidity 31 % 28 km away, in 2020

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

What happened to them

2 days
median duration
188 ha
median area
8 %
went past 1,000 ha
3.7 mm
rain at the end (median; 18 of 24 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (150 ha against a median of 188 ha) and lasted 2 days, against 2 days.

In 6 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 3.7 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

2.6 mmfirst rain
8 Septthe day after it ended
66km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 7 Sept, and on 8 Sept 2.6 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 18 of 24, with a median of 3.7 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 · 30 Aug 2021
After · 14 Sept 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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 7 September 2021 the air beside the fire reached 17 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak17 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1039 µg/m³
4 Sept6 Sept8 Sept10 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 · 2Every 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 6 September 2021 and 7 September 2021: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 6 September 2021 at 11:38 and declared extinguished on 7 September 2021.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 150 hectares (1.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chandrexa de Queixa (149 ha, 0.9 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Chandrexa de Queixa and came within 5.0 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 24.4 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 66 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 17, class Moderate.
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 2 days and their median area 188 ha; 8 % went past 1,000 ha. In 6 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 3.7 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
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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. 2 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 142 official ha against 150 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.