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Ibias fire, 19 April 2017 Ibias, Allande, Cangas del Narcea

Out · last detection 21 Apr 2017, 03:32 UTC

The fire started on 19 April 2017 in Ibias, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 150 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 18 April 2017 at 22:52 and declared extinguished on 20 April 2017.

It is the 121th largest in Asturias since 2016 (of 225 with a page). Number 113 in Spain in 2017, of 144.

The power measured by the satellite is low (16.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
150ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
19 Apr 2017 – 20 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
19 Apr
2017
Heat detections
10
in a single hotspot: 16 MW
Danger at start
11
Low · FWI index
Energy released
80MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Apr 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Apr20 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

1921

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

The weather it burned in

18°high
48km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 24 Apr.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Ibias 1,084 inhabitants · 9.0 km from the town where it started
    126 ha reached on 19 Apr
    0.4 %
  2. Allande 1,506 inhabitants · 24.3 km from the town
    15 ha
    0.0 %
  3. Cangas del Narcea 11,282 inhabitants · 24.7 km from the town
    9 ha
    0.0 %

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

  • Other natural land100 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 11 %

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.

Official record

According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 18 April 2017 and burned 146 ha (the satellite measured 150 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.

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)
19 Apr 15.9 °C 35 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
20 Apr 17.6 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
21 Apr after 19.5 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
22 Apr after 19.1 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
23 Apr after 19.2 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 15
24 Apr after 18.0 °C 37 % 37 km/h 1.0 mm Low 8

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Apr 2017
After · 27 Apr 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 22 April 2017 the air beside the fire reached 43 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 26: 1.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak43 µg/m³
Days over the guideline5 days
PM1053 µg/m³
1718192021222324
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 · 10Every 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 Ibias fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 19 April 2017 and 20 April 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 18 April 2017 at 22:52 and declared extinguished on 20 April 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 150 hectares (1.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Ibias (126 ha, 0.4 %); Allande (15 ha, 0.0 %); Cangas del Narcea (9 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 9.0 km of Ibias. 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 17.6 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 12, 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

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.

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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.