Gizzeria fire, August 2021 Gizzeria, Lamezia Terme
The fire started on 4 August 2021 in Gizzeria, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 361 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 6th largest in Catanzaro since 2016 (of 30 with a page). Number 75 in Italy in 2021, of 291.
The power measured by the satellite is low (24.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
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- Burnt area
- 361ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 6days
- 4 Aug 2021 – 9 Aug 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 4 Aug
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 31
- in a single hotspot: 25 MW
- Danger at start
- 19
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 61MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
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 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
49% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 118 ha in 2017, 58 ha in 2020.
What happened to each town
-
208 ha reached on 5 Aug5.6 %
-
Lamezia Terme 67,026 inhabitants · 5.0 km from the centre154 ha reached on 6 Aug1.0 %
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
- Broadleaved forest34 %
- Agricultural areas31 %
- Other natural land14 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland9.3 %
- Coniferous forest5.8 %
- Mixed forest4.9 %
- Artificial surfaces0.6 %
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 were about 0.76 hectares of built-up land and about 100 residents (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
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Aug | 30.7 °C | 30 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 5 Aug | 27.3 °C | 54 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 6 Aug | 22.8 °C | 70 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 7 Aug | 25.2 °C | 58 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 8 Aug | 30.1 °C | 36 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 9 Aug | 28.1 °C | 53 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 10 Aug after | 29.3 °C | 52 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 11 Aug after | 28.3 °C | 46 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 12 Aug after | 26.7 °C | 68 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 13 Aug after | 26.6 °C | 63 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 14 Aug after | 26.5 °C | 67 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 15 Aug after | 26.6 °C | 62 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 16 Aug after | 25.6 °C | 68 % | 22 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 17 Aug after | 27.3 °C | 44 % | 20 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 17 |
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 · 31Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Gizzeria fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 4 August 2021 to 9 August 2021 (6 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 August 2021 to 7 August 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 361 hectares (3.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Gizzeria (208 ha, 5.6 %); Lamezia Terme (154 ha, 1.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Gizzeria and reached its centre: 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 30.7 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, class Moderate.
- 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 7 August 2021 → 9 August 2021.
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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 4 August 2021 to 7 August 2021. 31 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.
- 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 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.