El Ronquillo fire, July 2022 El Ronquillo, Castilblanco de los Arroyos, Guillena
The fire started on 10 July 2022 in El Ronquillo, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 494 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 10 July 2022 at 14:01 and declared extinguished on 12 July 2022.
It is the 4th largest in Sevilla since 2016 (of 16 with a page). Number 65 in Spain in 2022, of 196.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 494ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 10 Jul 2022 – 10 Jul 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 10 Jul
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 16
- in a single hotspot: 117 MW
- Danger at start
- 53
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 755MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
10 Jul 2022 · 755 MW · 16
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 38 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
-
296 ha reached on 10 Jul3.9 %
-
Castilblanco de los Arroyos 5,145 inhabitants · 14.7 km from the centre182 ha0.6 %
-
Guillena 14,260 inhabitants · 18.6 km from the centre16 ha reached on 10 Jul0.1 %
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
- Scrub and transitional woodland42 %
- Agricultural areas25 %
- Coniferous forest18 %
- Other land cover9.5 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub3.4 %
- Artificial surfaces1.6 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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.
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
Official record
According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 10 July 2022 and burned 416 ha (the satellite measured 494 ha).
- El Ronquillo Lagos del Serrano 10 July 2022 · 14:01 416 ha · extinguished on 12 July 2022 · cause: negligence
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)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Jul | 39.2 °C | 19 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 11 Jul after | 39.6 °C | 13 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 12 Jul after | 39.0 °C | 15 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 13 Jul after | 41.7 °C | 15 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 14 Jul after | 41.0 °C | 14 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 15 Jul after | 39.8 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 16 Jul after | 39.7 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 17 Jul after | 37.4 °C | 21 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 18 Jul after | 33.9 °C | 37 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 19 Jul after | 35.1 °C | 20 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 20 Jul after | 37.2 °C | 19 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
Detections table · 16Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 1,677 haEl Castillo de las GuardasAugust 2016 · 2 days · 14 km away
- 1,110 haAlmadén de la PlataSeptember 2017 · 2 days · 16 km away
- 1,443 haBurguillosJune 2025 · 2 days · 20 km away
- 3,600 haLa Granada de Riotinto ZufreSeptember 2017 · 3 days · 26 km away
- 1,744 haNervaAugust 2018 · 3 days · 38 km away
- 43,702 haNieblaAugust 2026 · 9 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the El Ronquillo fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 10 July 2022 and 10 July 2022: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 10 July 2022 at 14:01 and declared extinguished on 12 July 2022.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 494 hectares (4.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: El Ronquillo (296 ha, 3.9 %); Castilblanco de los Arroyos (182 ha, 0.6 %); Guillena (16 ha, 0.1 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in El Ronquillo and came within 2.7 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 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 35 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 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 ›
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.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 16 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 416 official ha against 494 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- 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 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.