Skip to content
worldfires
ES · Spain · –

Don Benito fire, November 2026 Don Benito, Santa Amalia, Villar de Rena

Out · last detection 8 Nov 2026, 02:25 UTC

Satellites first detected fire on 4 November 2026 in Don Benito, Spain. It was active for 4 days, with 22 heat detections and an area with fire of about 294 hectares rebuilt from them, spread across 8 municipalities.

The power measured by the satellite is low (9.1 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

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.

Area with fire
≈ 294ha
rebuilt from hotspots, no official perimeter yet
Duration
4days
4 Nov 2026 – 7 Nov 2026
Municipalities hit
8
municipalities
Started on
4 Nov
2026
Heat detections
22
in a single hotspot: 9 MW
Danger at start
14
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
27MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Nov7 Nov
8 Nov 2026

How it evolved, day by day

4 Nov 2026 · 42 MW · 13 5 Nov 2026 · 38 MW · 9 7 Nov 2026 · 0 MW · 0 8 Nov 2026 · 2 MW · 2
4 Nov 5 Nov 7 Nov 8 Nov

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

The weather it burned in

23°high
25km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.2 mm on 8 Nov.

What happened to each town

  1. Don Benito 37,986 inhabitants · 5.9 km from the centre
    112 ha reached on 4 Nov
    0.2 %
  2. 56 ha reached on 4 Nov
    0.8 %
  3. Villar de Rena 1,326 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    56 ha reached on 4 Nov
    0.7 %
  4. 14 ha reached on 4 Nov
    0.1 %
  5. Medellín 2,241 inhabitants · 2.8 km from the centre
    14 ha reached on 4 Nov
    0.2 %
  6. Mengabril 504 inhabitants · 3.2 km from the centre
    14 ha reached on 5 Nov
    0.3 %
  7. Valdetorres 6,665 inhabitants · 10.2 km from the centre where it started
    14 ha reached on 4 Nov
    0.4 %
  8. Villanueva de la Serena 25,773 inhabitants · 7.1 km from the centre
    14 ha reached on 4 Nov
    0.1 %

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)
4 Nov 19.5 °C 27 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
5 Nov 19.7 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
6 Nov 18.9 °C 30 % 25 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 15
7 Nov 23.2 °C 34 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
8 Nov after 24.0 °C 34 % 33 km/h 4.2 mm Moderate 16

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 14.4, a minimum humidity of 27% and 16 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 31.

FWI at the start 14.4
Minimum humidity 27 %
Days without rain 16
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Alcaudete de la Jara fire, July 2025
101 ha 1 day FWI 15.8 Min. humidity 25 % 121 km away, in 2025

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

What happened to them

1 day
median duration
247 ha
median area
10 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.3 mm
rain at the end (median; 15 of 31 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (294 ha against a median of 247 ha) and lasted 4 days, against 1 day.

In 16 of 31, 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 2.3 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

4.2 mmfirst rain
8 Novthe day after it ended
25km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 7 Nov, and on 8 Nov 4.2 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 15 of 31, with a median of 2.3 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · forecast models, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives

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 · 28 Oct 2026
After · 14 Nov 2026

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
11 Oct13 Oct15 Oct
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 · 22Every 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 Don Benito fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite, it burned from 4 November 2026 to 7 November 2026 (4 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 294 hectares with fire (2.9 km²); Copernicus will publish the measured figure within days.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 8 municipalities: Don Benito (112 ha, 0.2 %); Santa Amalia (56 ha, 0.8 %); Villar de Rena (56 ha, 0.7 %); Guareña (14 ha, 0.1 %); Medellín (14 ha, 0.2 %); Mengabril (14 ha, 0.3 %); Valdetorres (14 ha, 0.4 %); Villanueva de la Serena (14 ha, 0.1 %).
Is the Don Benito fire still active?
No fire detections since 8 Nov 2026, 02:25 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire reached the centre of Villar de Rena: the point marking it was inside the burnt area or less than 500 metres from it. That does not mean houses burned.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 23.2 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 25 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 15, 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: 31. Their median duration was 1 day and their median area 247 ha; 10 % went past 1,000 ha. In 16 of 31, 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 2.3 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 · 43 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Area: ≈ 224 → ≈ 294 ha.
  2. Last day with fire: 5 November 2026 → 7 November 2026.
  3. Start date: 3 November 2026 → 4 November 2026.
  4. The page “Guareña, 3 November 2026” has been merged into this one: it was the same fire.
  5. Area: ≈ 210 → ≈ 168 ha.
  6. Start date: 2 November 2026 → 3 November 2026.
  7. Area: ≈ 280 → ≈ 224 ha.
  8. Start date: 2 November 2026 → 3 November 2026.
  9. Area: ≈ 294 → ≈ 280 ha.
  10. Start date: 1 November 2026 → 2 November 2026.
  11. Area: ≈ 448 → ≈ 294 ha.
  12. Start date: 31 October 2026 → 1 November 2026.
  13. Last day with fire: 4 November 2026 → 7 November 2026.
  14. Area: ≈ 490 → ≈ 448 ha.
  15. Start date: 29 October 2026 → 31 October 2026.
  16. Area: ≈ 504 → ≈ 490 ha.
  17. Last day with fire: 24 October 2026 → 5 November 2026.
  18. Start date: 28 October 2026 → 29 October 2026.
  19. Area: ≈ 518 → ≈ 504 ha.
  20. Start date: 27 October 2026 → 28 October 2026.
  21. Area: ≈ 168 → ≈ 210 ha.
  22. Start date: 26 October 2026 → 27 October 2026.
  23. Page published (≈ 168 ha).
  24. Area: ≈ 294 → ≈ 518 ha.
  25. Start date: 24 October 2026 → 26 October 2026.
  26. Area: ≈ 392 → ≈ 294 ha.
  27. Start date: 23 October 2026 → 24 October 2026.
  28. Area: ≈ 574 → ≈ 392 ha.
  29. Start date: 22 October 2026 → 23 October 2026.
  30. Area: ≈ 490 → ≈ 574 ha.
  31. Start date: 21 October 2026 → 22 October 2026.
  32. Area: ≈ 476 → ≈ 490 ha.
  33. Start date: 19 October 2026 → 21 October 2026.
  34. Name: Rena → Don Benito.
  35. Area: ≈ 392 → ≈ 476 ha.
  36. Area: ≈ 490 → ≈ 392 ha.
  37. Start date: 17 October 2026 → 19 October 2026.
  38. Name: Don Benito → Rena.
  39. Area: ≈ 560 → ≈ 490 ha.
  40. Start date: 16 October 2026 → 17 October 2026.
  41. Area: ≈ 616 → ≈ 560 ha.
  42. Start date: 15 October 2026 → 16 October 2026.
  43. Area: ≈ 574 → ≈ 616 ha.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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
  • No perimeter yet: the area (≈ 294 ha) is estimated by counting VIIRS pixels with fire, about 14 ha each.
  • Dates of the first and last VIIRS detection of the cluster. 22 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.