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ES · Spain · –

la Vall d'Uixó fire, July 2026 Artana, la Vall d'Uixó, Alcudia de Veo

Out · last detection 30 Jul 2026, 01:58 UTC

The fire started on 25 July 2026 in la Vall d'Uixó, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 9,222 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 12 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Castelló / Castellón since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 7 in Spain in 2026, of 196.

Burnt area
9,222ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
≈ 6days
25 Jul 2026 – 30 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit
12
municipalities
Started on
25 Jul
2026
Heat detections
640
in a single hotspot: 275 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
2.2GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Jul30 Jul
30 Jul 2026

How it evolved, day by day

25 Jul 2026 · 5,488 MW · 88 26 Jul 2026 · 3,587 MW · 170 27 Jul 2026 · 2,027 MW · 234 28 Jul 2026 · 924 MW · 88 29 Jul 2026 · 910 MW · 51 30 Jul 2026 · 26 MW · 9
25 Jul 27 Jul 29 Jul

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

Fire front film How it spread from one satellite pass to the next (16 passes) and with what wind. Watch the film

The weather it burned in

36°high
45km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

15% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,381 ha in 2016, 8 ha in 2025.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 5.8% of the area of London (92 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Artana 1,993 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the centre
    3,063 ha reached on 25 Jul
    84 %
  2. la Vall d'Uixó 32,242 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the centre where it started
    1,387 ha reached on 25 Jul
    21 %
  3. Alcudia de Veo 200 inhabitants · 1.6 km from the centre
    897 ha reached on 27 Jul
    29 %
  4. Onda 26,190 inhabitants · 1.5 km from the centre
    776 ha reached on 27 Jul
    7.2 %
  5. Alfondeguilla 881 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the centre
    735 ha reached on 25 Jul
    26 %
  6. Eslida 815 inhabitants · 0.7 km from the centre
    735 ha reached on 27 Jul
    40 %
  7. Tales 827 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    649 ha reached on 27 Jul
    45 %
  8. Nules 14,315 inhabitants · 3.1 km from the centre
    422 ha reached on 25 Jul
    8.3 %
  9. la Vilavella 3,054 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    270 ha reached on 25 Jul
    44 %
  10. Betxí 5,659 inhabitants · 1.7 km from the centre
    237 ha reached on 26 Jul
    11 %
  11. Aín 133 inhabitants · 1.0 km from the centre
    56 ha reached on 27 Jul
    4.6 %
  12. Chóvar 316 inhabitants · 2.0 km from the centre
    8 ha reached on 27 Jul
    0.4 %

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

  • Sclerophyllous scrub36 %
  • Coniferous forest29 %
  • Other natural land18 %
  • Agricultural areas6.9 %
  • Broadleaved forest6.4 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland2.7 %
  • Mixed forest0.9 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 81 %

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 2025
Built-up area17 ha
Residents≈ 1,500

Inside the perimeter there were about 17 hectares of built-up land and about 1,500 residents (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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

Checked against the press

Checked on 29 September 2026

We checked this page against 3 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
incendi de la Vall d'Uixó · incendio de Artana · incendio Serra d'Espadà
Official area reported: 9,568 ha (the satellite measured 9,222 ha)
Declared stabilised: 31 July 2026

Sources

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)

Started with Extreme FWI: 13 % of the area in Spain

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
25 Jul 35.7 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
26 Jul 30.9 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Jul 30.7 °C 40 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Jul 31.9 °C 49 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Jul 32.9 °C 43 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
30 Jul 32.6 °C 45 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
31 Jul after 32.1 °C 55 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Aug after 32.2 °C 61 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
2 Aug after 32.9 °C 56 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
3 Aug after 31.0 °C 62 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
4 Aug after 32.7 °C 41 % 35 km/h 0.5 mm High 28
5 Aug after 32.1 °C 60 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
6 Aug after 32.1 °C 60 % 34 km/h 0.5 mm High 28
7 Aug after 33.1 °C 53 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
8 Aug after 33.8 °C 51 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
9 Aug after 33.8 °C 46 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 54.9, a minimum humidity of 16% and 16 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 15.

FWI at the start 54.9
Minimum humidity 16 %
Days without rain 16
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Alcampell fire, June 2026
4,376 ha 2 days FWI 56.5 Min. humidity 17 % 234 km away, in 2026

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.6 mm on 28 Jun.

What happened to them

2 days
median duration
392 ha
median area
40 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.8 mm
rain at the end (median; 12 of 15 had it)

It was 23.5 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 6 days, against 2 days.

Only 1 of its 15 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 3 of 15, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.8 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
45km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 30 Jul, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 12 of 15, with a median of 2.8 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Jul 2026
After · 6 Aug 2026

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 28 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 635 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 207: 14 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak635 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM10692 µg/m³
Optical depth1.02
23 Jul25 Jul27 Jul
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 · 640Every 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 la Vall d'Uixó fire last?
The official perimeter only gives the start date (25 July 2026). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 30 July 2026 (6 days from 25 July 2026), the last day with detections before more than 10 days in a row without any, so it is approximate.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 9,222 hectares (92.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 12 municipalities: Artana (3,063 ha, 84 %); la Vall d'Uixó (1,387 ha, 21 %); Alcudia de Veo (897 ha, 29 %); Onda (776 ha, 7.2 %); Alfondeguilla (735 ha, 26 %); Eslida (735 ha, 40 %); Tales (649 ha, 45 %); Nules (422 ha, 8.3 %); la Vilavella (270 ha, 44 %); Betxí (237 ha, 11 %); Aín (56 ha, 4.6 %); Chóvar (8 ha, 0.4 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire reached the centre of Tales: the point marking it was inside the burnt area or less than 500 metres from it. That does not mean houses burned.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, class Extreme.
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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 15. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 392 ha; 40 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 1 of its 15 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 3 of 15, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.8 mm.

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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 25 July 2026 → 30 July 2026.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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
What do you think is wrong?

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • The official perimeter has no end date: the end is the last day with VIIRS detections inside the perimeter before a gap of more than 10 days (150 days at most), so it is approximate. 640 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Checked against news and agencies: 3 confirmed sources.
  • 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 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.