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Férez fire, July 2020 Férez, Hellín, Liétor

Out · last detection 31 Jul 2020, 01:09 UTC

The fire started on 30 July 2020 in Férez, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 210 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 30 July 2020 at 20:00 and declared extinguished on 3 August 2020.

It is the 9th largest in Albacete since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 46 in Spain in 2020, of 89.

The power measured by the satellite is low (2.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
210ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
30 Jul 2020 – 31 Jul 2020
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
30 Jul
2020
Heat detections
2
in a single hotspot: 3 MW
Danger at start
50
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
4MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Jul31 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

31

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
43km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 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

  1. Férez 604 inhabitants · 14.8 km from the town where it started
    201 ha reached on 31 Jul
    1.6 %
  2. Hellín 30,836 inhabitants · 17.5 km from the town
    5 ha
    0.0 %
  3. Liétor 1,052 inhabitants · 14.4 km from the town
    4 ha
    0.0 %

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 land73 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland13 %
  • Agricultural areas6.2 %
  • Coniferous forest4.8 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub2.9 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 99 %

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.

Official record

According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 30 July 2020 and burned 179 ha (the satellite measured 210 ha).

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)
30 Jul 38.1 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
31 Jul 41.0 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Aug after 41.2 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
2 Aug after 40.5 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Aug after 35.1 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
4 Aug after 32.1 °C 44 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
5 Aug after 34.6 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Aug after 34.9 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Aug after 36.6 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Aug after 39.0 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Aug after 38.8 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Aug after 35.3 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Jul 2020
After · 7 Aug 2020

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 1 August 2020 the air beside the fire reached 25 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak25 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1043 µg/m³
28293031123
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 · 2Every 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 Férez fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 30 July 2020 and 31 July 2020: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 30 July 2020 at 20:00 and declared extinguished on 3 August 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 210 hectares (2.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Férez (201 ha, 1.6 %); Hellín (5 ha, 0.0 %); Liétor (4 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 14.4 km of Liétor. 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 41.0 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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

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
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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.

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.