How long did the Don Benito fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite, it burned from 17 October 2026 to 26 October 2026 (10 days between the first and the last detection). There is no perimeter yet to date it.

How much area did it burn?

There is no official perimeter yet. Heat detections rebuild about 490 hectares with fire (4.9 km²); Copernicus will publish the measured figure within days.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 12 municipalities: Don Benito (210 ha, 0.4 %); Villar de Rena (126 ha, 1.5 %); Rena (42 ha, 3.9 %); Santa Amalia (42 ha, 0.6 %); Medellín (28 ha, 0.4 %); Acedera (28 ha, 0.3 %); Escurial (14 ha, 0.1 %); Campo Lugar (0 ha, 0.0 %); Mengabril (0 ha, 0.0 %); Valdetorres (0 ha, 0.0 %); Abertura (0 ha, 0.0 %); Miajadas (0 ha, 0.0 %).

Is the Don Benito fire still active?

Yes: satellites detected fire on 27 Oct 2026, 02:51 UTC. Check the emergency service for the official status.

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire came within 1.0 km of the centre of Rena, the closest of the areas it touched. 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 27.1 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, 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.

ES · Spain · 2026-10-17 → 2026-10-26

Don Benito fire, October 2026 Don Benito, Villar de Rena, Rena

Burning · last detection 27 Oct 2026, 02:51 UTC

Satellites first detected fire on 17 October 2026 in Don Benito, Spain. It has been active for 10 days, with 35 heat detections and an area with fire of about 490 hectares rebuilt from them, spread across 12 municipalities.

The power measured by the satellite is low (27.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

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Copernicus has not yet published the burnt perimeter, which takes a few days to measure on satellite imagery. For now the area is the one rebuilt from heat detections (about 14 hectares per pixel). When the perimeter arrives, this page picks it up on its own and keeps the same address.

Is it still active?

Satellites detected fire on 27 Oct 2026, 02:51 UTC. Everything suggests it is still burning. Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.

Area with fire: ≈ 490ha; rebuilt from hotspots, no official perimeter yet
Duration: 10days; 17 Oct 2026 – 26 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 12; municipalities
Started on: 17 Oct; 2026
Heat detections: 35; in a single hotspot: 28 MW
Danger at start: 9; Low · FWI index
Average daily power: 25MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Oct26 Oct

Play back 27 Oct 2026

How it evolved, day by day

17 Oct 21 Oct 23 Oct 25 Oct 27 Oct

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

The weather it burned in

27°high

37km/h · peak gust

19%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

What happened to each town

Don Benito 37,986 inhabitants · 2.7 km from the centre

210 ha reached on 17 Oct

0.4 %
Villar de Rena 1,326 inhabitants · 2.1 km from the centre

126 ha reached on 17 Oct

1.5 %
Rena 605 inhabitants · 1.0 km from the centre

42 ha reached on 19 Oct

3.9 %
Santa Amalia where it started

42 ha reached on 17 Oct

0.6 %
Medellín 2,241 inhabitants · 2.4 km from the centre

28 ha reached on 22 Oct

0.4 %
Acedera 815 inhabitants · 6.3 km from the centre

28 ha reached on 17 Oct

0.3 %
Escurial 855 inhabitants · 1.9 km from the centre

14 ha reached on 17 Oct

0.1 %
Campo Lugar 790 inhabitants · 6.9 km from the centre

0 ha reached on 21 Oct

0.0 %
Mengabril 504 inhabitants · 4.1 km from the centre

0 ha reached on 21 Oct

0.0 %
Valdetorres 6,665 inhabitants · 8.1 km from the centre

0 ha reached on 21 Oct

0.0 %
Abertura 362 inhabitants · 8.9 km from the centre

0 ha reached on 24 Oct

0.0 %
Miajadas 9,396 inhabitants · 3.6 km from the centre

0 ha reached on 26 Oct

0.0 %

Area with fire inside each municipality, rebuilt from heat detections (about 14 hectares per VIIRS pixel). An estimate until the official perimeter arrives. 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.

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) · forecast models, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives

Day	High	Min. humidity	Peak gust	Rain	Danger (FWI)
17 Oct	27.1 °C	40 %	36 km/h	1.1 mm	Low 9
18 Oct	21.9 °C	50 %	37 km/h	3.1 mm	Very low 3
19 Oct	22.8 °C	47 %	27 km/h	0.7 mm	Very low 5
20 Oct	19.8 °C	40 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
21 Oct	22.4 °C	34 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
22 Oct	23.0 °C	33 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
23 Oct	22.4 °C	30 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
24 Oct	22.5 °C	24 %	16 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
25 Oct	22.9 °C	28 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
26 Oct	27.0 °C	19 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
27 Oct after	22.8 °C	31 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 10 Oct 2026

After · 26 Oct 2026

Before After

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 16 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 8 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak8 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1013 µg/m³

Optical depth0.14

111213141516

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 · 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Spain ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Don Benito fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite, it burned from 17 October 2026 to 26 October 2026 (10 days between the first and the last detection). There is no perimeter yet to date it.
How much area did it burn?: There is no official perimeter yet. Heat detections rebuild about 490 hectares with fire (4.9 km²); Copernicus will publish the measured figure within days.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 12 municipalities: Don Benito (210 ha, 0.4 %); Villar de Rena (126 ha, 1.5 %); Rena (42 ha, 3.9 %); Santa Amalia (42 ha, 0.6 %); Medellín (28 ha, 0.4 %); Acedera (28 ha, 0.3 %); Escurial (14 ha, 0.1 %); Campo Lugar (0 ha, 0.0 %); Mengabril (0 ha, 0.0 %); Valdetorres (0 ha, 0.0 %); Abertura (0 ha, 0.0 %); Miajadas (0 ha, 0.0 %).
Is the Don Benito fire still active?: Yes: satellites detected fire on 27 Oct 2026, 02:51 UTC. Check the emergency service for the official status.
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire came within 1.0 km of the centre of Rena, the closest of the areas it touched. 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 27.1 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, 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.

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 ›

MITECO · Incendios forestales ↗
Protección Civil ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page · 5 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

27 October 2026 Area: ≈ 560 → ≈ 490 ha.
27 October 2026 Start date: 16 October 2026 → 17 October 2026.
26 October 2026 Area: ≈ 616 → ≈ 560 ha.
26 October 2026 Start date: 15 October 2026 → 16 October 2026.
25 October 2026 Area: ≈ 574 → ≈ 616 ha.

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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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

No perimeter yet: the area (≈ 490 ha) is estimated by counting VIIRS pixels with fire, about 14 ha each.
Dates of the first and last VIIRS detection of the cluster. 35 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Weather: ECMWF IFS model, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives.

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.