Ierapetra fire, April 2024 Ιεράπετρα · Ierapetra
The fire started on 6 April 2024 in Ierapetra, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 275 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 14th largest in Crete since 2016 (of 25 with a page). Number 20 in Greece in 2024, of 42.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 275ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 6 Apr 2024 – 6 Apr 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 6 Apr
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 4
- in a single hotspot: 33 MW
- Danger at start
- 14
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 107MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
6 Apr 2024 · 107 MW · 4
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 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
276 ha reached on 6 Apr0.5 %
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
- Agricultural areas36 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub36 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland28 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 78 %
- LIC OROS THRYPTIS KAI GYRO PERIOCHI GR4320005
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Apr | 17.7 °C | 60 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 7 Apr after | 18.8 °C | 60 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 8 Apr after | 15.4 °C | 68 % | 64 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 9 Apr after | 15.9 °C | 68 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 10 Apr after | 17.6 °C | 59 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 11 Apr after | 17.5 °C | 61 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 12 Apr after | 16.8 °C | 75 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 13 Apr after | 18.5 °C | 67 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 14 Apr after | 18.1 °C | 61 % | 57 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 15 Apr after | 18.2 °C | 68 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 16 Apr after | 16.4 °C | 84 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 4 April 2024 the air beside the fire reached 14 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
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 · 4Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 615 haIerapetra ΙεράπετραJuly 2025 · 2 days · 5 km away
- 139 haIerapetra ΙεράπετραJuly 2017 · 2 days · 9 km away
- 503 haSitia ΣητείαJuly 2018 · 1 day · 16 km away
- 441 haSitia ΣητείαJuly 2026 · 1 day · 20 km away
- 137 haIerapetra ΙεράπετραApril 2017 · 2 days · 24 km away
- 217 haIerapetra ΙεράπετραApril 2016 · 1 day · 25 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ierapetra fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 6 April 2024 and 6 April 2024: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 275 hectares (2.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ierapetra (276 ha, 0.5 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Ierapetra and came within 16.6 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 17.7 °C, humidity dropped to 60 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 14, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Greece (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 · 199 · 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. 4 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.
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 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). 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.