Gondomar fire, 15 October 2017 Vigo, Nigrán, Gondomar
The fire started on 15 October 2017 in Gondomar, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,734 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 15 October 2017 at 17:04 and declared extinguished on 19 October 2017.
It is the 4th largest in Pontevedra since 2016 (of 33 with a page). Number 14 in Spain in 2017, of 144.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 1,734ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 15 Oct 2017 – 15 Oct 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 15 Oct
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 3
- in a single hotspot: 43 MW
- Danger at start
- 15
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 85MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
15 Oct 2017 · 85 MW · 3
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 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 24.5 mm on 16 Oct.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Vigo 294,489 inhabitants · 4.1 km from the centre914 ha8.3 %
-
Nigrán 18,174 inhabitants · 3.7 km from the centre651 ha19 %
-
169 ha reached on 15 Oct2.3 %
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 forest53 %
- Coniferous forest13 %
- Other natural land11 %
- Agricultural areas10 %
- Artificial surfaces6.2 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland3.7 %
- Mixed forest3.0 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2015Inside the perimeter there were about 29 hectares of built-up land and about 2,100 residents (GHSL 2015, 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
Official record
According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 15 October 2017 and burned 1,484 ha (the satellite measured 1,734 ha).
- Nigrán 15 October 2017 · 17:04 1,484 ha · extinguished on 19 October 2017 · cause: arson
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 2026We checked this page against 4 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:
- Also known as
- Chandebrito · Incendios de Vigo, Nigrán y Gondomar · Coruxo / Fragoselo
- According to the sources, several fires that ended up merging:
- Chandebrito (Nigrán) 15 October 2017 600 ha
- Coruxo / monte Fragoselo (Vigo) 15 October 2017
- Gondomar 15 October 2017
Sources
- Octubre de 2017, el fatídico domingo en el que las llamas asolaron Vigo y su comarca — El Español (Treintayseis), 15 October 2022
- Instalan 'pulmones del monte' en Chandebrito por el incendio de 2017 — Atlántico Diario, 13 October 2019
- El 80% de las 62.000 hectáreas arrasadas por los incendios de 2017 en Galicia ardieron en dos días de octubre — elDiario.es Galicia, 15 April 2018
- Por qué pudieron arder los montes periurbanos de Vigo (2017) y de la autopista Pontevedra-Santiago (2006) — Asociación Forestal de Galicia
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 | 23.8 °C | 44 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 16 Oct after | 20.5 °C | 56 % | 54 km/h | 24.5 mm | Very low 1 |
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 · 3Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 8,722 haPazos de BorbénOctober 2017 · 1 day · 27 km away
- 1,253 haMonção Barroças e TaiasAugust 2016 · 3 days · 28 km away
- 3,333 haAs NevesOctober 2017 · 1 day · 29 km away
- 3,893 haMonção MerufeOctober 2017 · 2 days · 31 km away
- 2,146 haArbo10 August 2016 · 3 days · 34 km away
- 1,896 haCaminha União das Freguesias de Venade e AzevedoAugust 2016 · 4 days · 37 km away
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 17:04 and declared extinguished on 19 October 2017.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,734 hectares (17.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Vigo (914 ha, 8.3 %); Nigrán (651 ha, 19 %); Gondomar (169 ha, 2.3 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Gondomar and came within 2.4 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 23.8 °C, humidity dropped to 44 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 15, class Moderate.
- 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
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.
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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 3 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 1,484 official ha against 1,734 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- Checked against news and agencies: 4 confirmed sources.
- 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 2015, 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 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.