Grad Vrlika fire, 15 July 2017 Općina Muć, Grad Vrlika
The fire started on 15 July 2017 in Grad Vrlika, Croatia, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 303 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 31th largest in Split-Dalmatia since 2016 (of 48 with a page). Number 47 in Croatia in 2017, of 78.
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- Burnt area
- 303ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 13days
- 15 Jul 2017 – 27 Jul 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 15 Jul
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 45
- in a single hotspot: 77 MW
- Danger at start
- 19
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 19MW
- 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 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 26.3 mm on 25 Jul.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
197 ha reached on 16 Jul0.9 %
-
Grad Vrlika where it started105 ha reached on 17 Jul0.4 %
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 land71 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland23 %
- Broadleaved forest6.3 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- LIC Svilaja HR2000922
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.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2015Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (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
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Jul | 25.4 °C | 37 % | 28 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 22 Jul | 25.3 °C | 35 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 23 Jul | 26.1 °C | 35 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 24 Jul | 24.8 °C | 33 % | 57 km/h | 5.3 mm | Low 6 |
| 25 Jul | 18.4 °C | 58 % | 31 km/h | 26.3 mm | Very low 0 |
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 · 45Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,636 haGrad VrlikaApril 2020 · 6 days · 5 km away
- 5,948 haDinara Općina CivljaneApril 2020 · 7 days · 20 km away
- 4,742 haLivno2 August 2017 · 6 days · 22 km away
- 3,400 haGrad Knin13 August 2026 · 9 days · 27 km away
- 8,212 haBosansko Grahovo6 April 2020 · 8 days · 28 km away
- 8,657 haBosansko GrahovoAugust 2026 · 12 days · 31 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Grad Vrlika fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 15 July 2017 to 27 July 2017 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 July 2017 to 24 July 2017.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 303 hectares (3.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Općina Muć (197 ha, 0.9 %); Grad Vrlika (105 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 26.1 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 57 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 Croatia (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 · 193 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 24 July 2017 → 27 July 2017.
- Start date: 21 July 2017 → 15 July 2017.
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 21 July 2017 to 24 July 2017. 45 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 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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0). 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.