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Ercolano fire, July 2017 Torre del Greco, Ercolano, Terzigno

Out · last detection 17 Jul 2017, 01:20 UTC

The fire started on 9 July 2017 in Ercolano, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 3,359 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 12 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Napoli since 2016 (of 12 with a page). Number 2 in Italy in 2017, of 361.

Burnt area
3,359ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
8days
9 Jul 2017 – 16 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit
12
municipalities
Started on
9 Jul
2017
Heat detections
231
in a single hotspot: 373 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Energy released
8.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Jul 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Jul16 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

910111213141617

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
73km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.9 mm on 25 Jul.

This area had burned before

6% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 213 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Torre del Greco 78,997 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the town
    895 ha reached on 8 Jul
    29 %
  2. Ercolano 50,124 inhabitants · 3.2 km from the town where it started
    662 ha reached on 5 Jul
    33 %
  3. Terzigno 17,211 inhabitants · 2.5 km from the town
    565 ha reached on 11 Jul
    24 %
  4. Ottaviano 23,115 inhabitants · 2.2 km from the town
    466 ha reached on 11 Jul
    23 %
  5. Sant'Anastasia 26,170 inhabitants · 1.9 km from the town
    190 ha reached on 12 Jul
    10 %
  6. Boscotrecase 9,795 inhabitants · 1.1 km from the town
    161 ha reached on 11 Jul
    21 %
  7. Somma Vesuviana 33,697 inhabitants · 2.6 km from the town
    153 ha reached on 11 Jul
    5.0 %
  8. Trecase 8,533 inhabitants · 1.6 km from the town
    102 ha reached on 11 Jul
    16 %
  9. Pollena Trocchia 12,750 inhabitants · 2.1 km from the town
    78 ha reached on 12 Jul
    9.9 %
  10. Massa di Somma 4,991 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the town
    47 ha reached on 12 Jul
    16 %
  11. San Giuseppe Vesuviano 30,120 inhabitants · 3.6 km from the town
    34 ha reached on 12 Jul
    2.4 %
  12. San Sebastiano al Vesuvio 8,664 inhabitants · 1.8 km from the town
    8 ha
    3.2 %

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 land50 %
  • Broadleaved forest20 %
  • Mixed forest12 %
  • Coniferous forest6.2 %
  • Agricultural areas5.8 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland4.1 %
  • Artificial surfaces1.8 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.

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

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)
5 Jul 26.4 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
6 Jul 26.4 °C 47 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
7 Jul 26.1 °C 56 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
8 Jul 25.7 °C 48 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
9 Jul 26.3 °C 41 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
10 Jul 28.0 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
11 Jul 28.4 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Jul 28.5 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
13 Jul 26.8 °C 56 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
14 Jul 24.9 °C 60 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
15 Jul 26.9 °C 44 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
16 Jul 25.9 °C 26 % 73 km/h 0.4 mm High 35
17 Jul after 26.4 °C 26 % 65 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Jul after 26.9 °C 28 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Jul after 24.9 °C 42 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
20 Jul after 25.5 °C 42 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
21 Jul after 28.7 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
22 Jul after 28.8 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
23 Jul after 26.2 °C 51 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
24 Jul after 26.4 °C 56 % 60 km/h 0.1 mm High 24
25 Jul after 23.2 °C 53 % 68 km/h 2.9 mm Low 8

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Jul 2017
After · 23 Jul 2017

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 12 July 2017 the air beside the fire reached 83 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 59: 3.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak83 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM10126 µg/m³
345678910111213141516171819202122
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 · 231Every 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 Italy ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ercolano fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 9 July 2017 and 16 July 2017: 8 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 3,359 hectares (33.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 12 municipalities: Torre del Greco (895 ha, 29 %); Ercolano (662 ha, 33 %); Terzigno (565 ha, 24 %); Ottaviano (466 ha, 23 %); Sant'Anastasia (190 ha, 10 %); Boscotrecase (161 ha, 21 %); Somma Vesuviana (153 ha, 5.0 %); Trecase (102 ha, 16 %); Pollena Trocchia (78 ha, 9.9 %); Massa di Somma (47 ha, 16 %); San Giuseppe Vesuviano (34 ha, 2.4 %); San Sebastiano al Vesuvio (8 ha, 3.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.6 km of Torre del Greco. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.5 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 73 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Italy (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 · 1515

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 · 1515.

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 ADM4 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License). 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.