Skip to content
worldfires
EL · Greece · →

Chios fire, July 2016 Δημοτική Ενότητα ΧΙΟΥ · Chios

Out · last detection 26 Jul 2016, 00:56 UTC

The fire started on 25 July 2016 in Chios, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 5,242 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 3th largest in North Aegean since 2016 (of 10 with a page). The largest in Greece in 2016, of 33.

Burnt area
5,242ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
25 Jul 2016 – 26 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
25 Jul
2016
Heat detections
184
in a single hotspot: 1,189 MW
Danger at start
72
Very extreme · FWI index
Energy released
13.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Jul26 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

2526

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
61km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 27 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. Chios Δημοτική Ενότητα ΧΙΟΥ 24,964 inhabitants where it started
    5,243 ha reached on 25 Jul
    6.2 %

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 land34 %
  • Agricultural areas34 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland22 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub8.5 %
  • Coniferous forest1.4 %

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

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
Chios wildfire 2016 · Φωτιά στη Χίο 2016 · Φωτιά στα Μαστιχοχώρια

Sources

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)
25 Jul 31.8 °C 33 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
26 Jul 31.4 °C 41 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
27 Jul after 30.9 °C 42 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Jul after 31.5 °C 41 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
29 Jul after 31.1 °C 46 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Jul after 32.0 °C 31 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
31 Jul after 32.6 °C 31 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
1 Aug after 32.4 °C 42 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Aug after 32.6 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Aug after 32.8 °C 37 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
4 Aug after 32.0 °C 42 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
5 Aug after 33.0 °C 42 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Jul 2016
After · 2 Aug 2016

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 25 July 2016 the air beside the fire reached 103 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 62: 4.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak103 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM10114 µg/m³
23242526272829
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 · 184Every 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 Greece ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Chios fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 25 July 2016 and 26 July 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 5,242 hectares (52.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chios (5,243 ha, 6.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 72, class Very extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Greece (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 · 199

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 · 199.

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 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). 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.