Ilida fire, September 2020 Ήλιδας · Ilida, Andravida-Kyllini, Pineios
The fire started on 9 September 2020 in Ilida, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 242 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 17th largest in Western Greece since 2016 (of 36 with a page). Number 10 in Greece in 2020, of 22.
Compare with…
We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.
- Burnt area
- 242ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 9 Sept 2020 – 9 Sept 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 9 Sept
- 2020
- Danger at start
- 42
- Very high · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 31 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 16 Sept.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
122 ha0.2 %
-
117 ha0.3 %
-
Pineios Πηνειός3 ha0.0 %
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
- Agricultural areas90 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland10 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Sept | 35.8 °C | 23 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 10 Sept after | 35.7 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 11 Sept after | 34.2 °C | 22 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 12 Sept after | 33.4 °C | 26 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 13 Sept after | 34.6 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 14 Sept after | 33.6 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 15 Sept after | 33.8 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 16 Sept after | 33.3 °C | 25 % | 29 km/h | 1.0 mm | High 30 |
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 9 September 2020 the air beside the fire reached 18 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)
Other fires nearby
- 818 haWest Achaea Δυτικής ΑχαΐαςJuly 2022 · 2 days · 12 km away
- 4,336 haErymanthos ΕρυμάνθουJune 2024 · 2 days · 16 km away
- 431 haPyrgos Πύργου6 August 2021 · 1 day · 20 km away
- 819 haPyrgos ΠύργουAugust 2025 · 2 days · 22 km away
- 1,483 haWest Achaea Δυτικής ΑχαΐαςSeptember 2017 · 1 day · 23 km away
- 2,846 haPatras Πάτρα12 August 2025 · 2 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ilida fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 9 September 2020 and 9 September 2020: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 242 hectares (2.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Ilida (122 ha, 0.2 %); Andravida-Kyllini (117 ha, 0.3 %); Pineios (3 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 14.1 km of Andravida-Kyllini. 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 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very high.
- 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
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No 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.