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Gondomar fire, 15 October 2017 Gondomar, Vigo, O Porriño

Out · last detection 15 Oct 2017, 14:39 UTC

The fire started on 15 October 2017 in Gondomar, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,213 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 15 October 2017 at 02:58 and declared extinguished on 19 October 2017.

It is the 5th largest in Pontevedra since 2016 (of 33 with a page). Number 22 in Spain in 2017, of 144.

Burnt area
1,213ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
15 Oct 2017 – 15 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
15 Oct
2017
Heat detections
99
in a single hotspot: 142 MW
Danger at start
25
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Oct15 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

15

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
61km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 22.3 mm on 16 Oct.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Gondomar 15,066 inhabitants · 3.4 km from the town where it started
    888 ha reached on 15 Oct
    12 %
  2. Vigo 294,489 inhabitants · 6.7 km from the town
    261 ha reached on 15 Oct
    2.4 %
  3. O Porriño 9,409 inhabitants · 13.2 km from the town
    65 ha reached on 15 Oct
    1.1 %

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

  • Coniferous forest60 %
  • Other natural land21 %
  • Broadleaved forest9.2 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland3.4 %
  • Agricultural areas2.9 %
  • Mixed forest2.6 %
  • Other land cover1.0 %

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

Official record

According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 15 October 2017 and burned 1,385 ha (the satellite measured 1,213 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.

Checked against the press

Checked on 30 September 2026

We checked this page against 4 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
incendio de Gondomar · incendios de Vigo y Val Miñor · incendios de Chandebrito (Nigrán)
According to the sources, several fires that ended up merging:
  • Morgadáns (Gondomar) 15 October 2017
  • Vincios (Gondomar) 15 October 2017
  • Chandebrito / Camos (Nigrán 15 October 2017 600 ha

Sources

Official figures are measured differently from satellite ones and sometimes cover only part of the fire.

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)
15 Oct 29.5 °C 25 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
16 Oct after 20.3 °C 46 % 63 km/h 22.3 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Oct 2017
After · 22 Oct 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 15 October 2017 the air beside the fire reached 54 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 31: 2.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak54 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM1087 µg/m³
131415161718
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 · 99Every 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 Gondomar fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 15 October 2017 and 15 October 2017: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 15 October 2017 at 02:58 and declared extinguished on 19 October 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,213 hectares (12.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Gondomar (888 ha, 12 %); Vigo (261 ha, 2.4 %); O Porriño (65 ha, 1.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.4 km of Gondomar. 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 29.5 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, class High.
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
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.

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.