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Dervenochoria fire, July 2023 Δερβενοχώρια · Mandra-Eidyllia, Tanagra, Megara

Out · last detection 24 Jul 2023, 23:10 UTC

The fire started on 17 July 2023 in Mandra-Eidyllia, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 11,662 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 5 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Attica since 2016 (of 32 with a page). Number 3 in Greece in 2023, of 34.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Tanagra · 2016Vilia · 2021Aspropyrgos · 2023Mandra-Eidyllia · 2026

Burnt area
11,662ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
7days
17 Jul 2023 – 23 Jul 2023
Municipalities hit
5
municipalities
Started on
17 Jul
2023
Heat detections
569
in a single hotspot: 501 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
3.6GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Jul23 Jul
24 Jul 2023

How it evolved, day by day

17 Jul 2023 · 1,860 MW · 94 18 Jul 2023 · 13,913 MW · 246 19 Jul 2023 · 5,422 MW · 199 20 Jul 2023 · 314 MW · 27 21 Jul 2023 · 2 MW · 1 24 Jul 2023 · 4 MW · 2
17 Jul 18 Jul 19 Jul 20 Jul 21 Jul 24 Jul

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

The weather it burned in

42°high
66km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

11% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,180 ha in 2016, 54 ha in 2021, 1 ha in 2022.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 7.4% of the area of London (117 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. Mandra-Eidyllia Μάνδρας - Ειδυλλίας 11,075 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the centre where it started
    7,714 ha reached on 17 Jul
    18 %
  2. Tanagra Τανάγρα
    2,622 ha reached on 17 Jul
    5.9 %
  3. Megara Μέγαρα 25,174 inhabitants
    710 ha reached on 18 Jul
    2.2 %
  4. Elefsina Ελευσίνα 22,668 inhabitants
    504 ha reached on 18 Jul
    16 %
  5. Aspropyrgos Ασπρόπυργος
    116 ha reached on 19 Jul
    1.2 %

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 scrub33 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland28 %
  • Coniferous forest22 %
  • Agricultural areas6.4 %
  • Other natural land5.3 %
  • Mixed forest4.4 %
  • Artificial surfaces0.9 %

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

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area24 ha
Residents≈ 500

Inside the perimeter there were about 24 hectares of built-up land and about 500 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
Δερβενοχώρια (Πάνακτο) – Μάνδρα · Fire in Dervenochoria · Panakto fire
Official area reported: 11,709 ha (the satellite measured 11,662 ha)

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)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
17 Jul 32.9 °C 28 % 66 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Jul 34.2 °C 33 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Jul 35.7 °C 26 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Jul 39.2 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Jul 38.5 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Jul 40.7 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Jul 42.1 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Jul after 37.2 °C 21 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
25 Jul after 38.2 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Jul after 43.3 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
27 Jul after 35.6 °C 20 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
28 Jul after 32.3 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Jul after 33.5 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Jul after 34.6 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Jul after 35.1 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Aug after 33.0 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 40
2 Aug after 34.4 °C 27 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Aug after 35.6 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Jul 2023
After · 30 Jul 2023

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 20 July 2023 the air beside the fire reached 28 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak28 µg/m³
Days over the guideline8 days
PM1068 µg/m³
Optical depth0.85
15161718192021222324252627
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 · 569Every 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 Dervenochoria fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 17 July 2023 and 23 July 2023: 7 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 11,662 hectares (116.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 5 municipalities: Mandra-Eidyllia (7,714 ha, 18 %); Tanagra (2,622 ha, 5.9 %); Megara (710 ha, 2.2 %); Elefsina (504 ha, 16 %); Aspropyrgos (116 ha, 1.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Mandra-Eidyllia and came within 0.5 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 42.1 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 66 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class 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 · 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.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 569 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 (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.