How long did the Filiates fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 31 July 2020 to 3 August 2020 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 1 August 2020 to 3 August 2020.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 145 hectares (1.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Filiates (121 ha, 0.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 29.9 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, class High.

Where does this data come from?

From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Greece (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

EL · Greece · 2020-07-31 → 2020-08-03

Filiates fire, July 2020 Φιλιάτες · Filiates

Out · last detection 2 Aug 2020, 00:30 UTC

The fire started on 31 July 2020 in Filiates, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 145 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 14th largest in Epirus since 2016 (of 19 with a page). Number 16 in Greece in 2020, of 22.

The power measured by the satellite is low (5.3 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Filiates · 2017 Sarandë · 2025 Sarandë · 2017 Gjirokastër · 2017

Burnt area: 145ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 4days; 31 Jul 2020 – 3 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 31 Jul; 2020
Heat detections: 6; in a single hotspot: 5 MW
Danger at start: 23; High · FWI index
Average daily power: 26MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Jul3 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2 Aug 2020 · 26 MW · 6

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

The weather it burned in

30°high

39km/h · peak gust

34%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 17.9 mm on 5 Aug.

This area had burned before

80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 116 ha in 2017.

116 ha Filiates fire, August 2017 209 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Filiates Φιλιάτες 8,270 inhabitants where it started

121 ha reached on 2 Aug

0.2 %

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

Other natural land94 %
Sclerophyllous scrub5.0 %
Broadleaved forest1.4 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 89 %

ZEPA ORI TSAMANTA, FILIATON, FARMAKOVOUNI, MEGALI RACHI GR2120009

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)
1 Aug	29.9 °C	34 %	39 km/h	0.4 mm	High 23
2 Aug	29.7 °C	36 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
3 Aug	27.8 °C	44 %	32 km/h	0.1 mm	High 22
4 Aug after	27.3 °C	45 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
5 Aug after	23.6 °C	67 %	41 km/h	17.9 mm	Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 24 Jul 2020

After · 10 Aug 2020

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 2 August 2020 the air beside the fire reached 24 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak24 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1028 µg/m³

WHO 15

3031123456

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 · 6Every 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 Greece ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Filiates fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 31 July 2020 to 3 August 2020 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 1 August 2020 to 3 August 2020.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 145 hectares (1.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Filiates (121 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 29.9 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, class High.
Where does this data come from?: From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Greece (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 · 199 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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 · 199.

How we know this

Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 1 August 2020 to 3 August 2020. 6 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
We have not matched this page with any official record.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

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 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). 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.

Where it burned