La Estrella fire, August 2024 La Estrella, Aldeanueva de Barbarroya, La Nava de Ricomalillo
The fire started on 6 August 2024 in La Estrella, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 2,468 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 2th largest in Toledo since 2016 (of 25 with a page). Number 2 in Spain in 2024, of 82.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 2,468ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 6 Aug 2024 – 7 Aug 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 6 Aug
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 61
- in a single hotspot: 40 MW
- Danger at start
- 41
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 306MW
- 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 38 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.
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
-
1,860 ha reached on 6 Aug24 %
-
Aldeanueva de Barbarroya 456 inhabitants · 4.2 km from the centre610 ha reached on 7 Aug6.6 %
-
La Nava de Ricomalillo 514 inhabitants · 4.2 km from the centre1 ha0.0 %
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 areas35 %
- Other natural land28 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub18 %
- Broadleaved forest14 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland4.1 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 36 %
- ZEPA + LIC Rios de la margen izquierda del Tajo y berrocales del Tajo ES4250013
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.
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
- incendio de La Estrella · incendio de la Jara toledana
- Official area reported: 2,500 ha (the satellite measured 2,468 ha)
Sources
- Extinguido el incendio forestal de La Estrella (Toledo) tras quemar 2.500 hectáreas en cuatro días — En Castilla-La Mancha (Junta), 10 August 2024 · official source
- Extinguido el incendio forestal de La Estrella, en Toledo: las llamas han quemado 2.500 hectáreas — Telecinco, 11 August 2024
- Extinguido el incendio de La Estrella — Castilla-La Mancha Media, 10 August 2024
- Extinguido el incendio forestal de La Estrella (Toledo), que ha quemado 2.500 hectáreas — Infobae (agencia Europa Press), 10 August 2024
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Aug | 37.9 °C | 15 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 7 Aug | 38.7 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 8 Aug after | 39.3 °C | 13 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 9 Aug after | 40.1 °C | 13 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 10 Aug after | 40.0 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 11 Aug after | 38.4 °C | 12 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 12 Aug after | 36.7 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 13 Aug after | 31.0 °C | 22 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 14 Aug after | 32.8 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 15 Aug after | 32.2 °C | 13 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 16 Aug after | 34.5 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 17 Aug after | 36.7 °C | 13 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
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 August 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 · 61Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 303 haLa EstrellaJuly 2020 · 1 day · 5 km away
- 3,084 haVillar del PedrosoAugust 2025 · 1 day · 9 km away
- 498 haRobledo del MazoJuly 2022 · 2 days · 19 km away
- 706 haCalera y ChozasAugust 2025 · 1 day · 24 km away
- 155 haTalavera de la ReinaJuly 2025 · 1 day · 27 km away
- 466 haPeraleda de San RománJuly 2021 · 2 days · 30 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the La Estrella fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 6 August 2024 and 7 August 2024: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 2,468 hectares (24.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: La Estrella (1,860 ha, 24 %); Aldeanueva de Barbarroya (610 ha, 6.6 %); La Nava de Ricomalillo (1 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in La Estrella and came within 0.5 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 38.7 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 33 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 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. 61 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Checked against news and agencies: 4 confirmed sources.
- 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 (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.