Lesaka fire, February 2021 Lesaka, Bera, Irun
The fire started on 21 February 2021 in Lesaka, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,108 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 20 February 2021 at 11:00 and declared extinguished on 21 February 2021.
It is the 5th largest in Navarre since 2016 (of 26 with a page). Number 9 in Spain in 2021, of 124.
The power measured by the satellite is low (10.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 1,108ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 21 Feb 2021 – 21 Feb 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 21 Feb
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 2
- in a single hotspot: 11 MW
- Danger at start
- 3
- Very low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 14MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
21 Feb 2021 · 14 MW · 2
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 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 28.2 mm on 22 Feb.
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
-
378 ha reached on 21 Feb6.8 %
-
Bera 3,779 inhabitants · 2.0 km from the centre368 ha10 %
-
Irun 63,835 inhabitants · 4.3 km from the centre357 ha8.5 %
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
- Broadleaved forest46 %
- Other natural land31 %
- Coniferous forest21 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland2.7 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 35 %
- LIC Aiako harria ES2120016
- LIC Massif de la Rhune et de Choldocogagna FR7200760
- LIC Río Bidasoa ES2200014
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 2020Inside the perimeter there were about 1.2 hectares of built-up land and about 80 residents (GHSL 2020, 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.
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
Official record
According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 20 February 2021 and burned 1,068 ha (the satellite measured 1,108 ha).
- Bera Antzuzelai 20 February 2021 · 11:00 1,068 ha · extinguished on 21 February 2021 · cause: arson
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.
Checked against the press
Checked on 2 October 2026We checked this page against 3 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:
- Also known as
- Incendio del Bidasoa · Incendio de Bera · Incendio de Irun/Erlaitz
- Declared extinguished: 22 February 2021
Sources
- El incendio forestal en Bera y Lesaka ha quemado 770 hectareas, con afeccion desigual por zonas y por tipo de vegetacion — Gobierno de Navarra, 26 February 2021 · official source
- Sofocado el incendio forestal que ha afectado a Navarra, Gipuzkoa y Lapurdi — Orain (EITB), 22 February 2021
- Extinguido el incendio de Bera y Lesaka — EITB Radio Euskadi, 22 February 2021
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Feb | 17.8 °C | 39 % | 77 km/h | 1.9 mm | Very low 3 |
| 22 Feb after | 12.1 °C | 89 % | 42 km/h | 28.2 mm | Very low 0 |
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.
Detections table · 2Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 552 haBiriatouFebruary 2021 · 1 day · 2 km away
- 483 haAscainFebruary 2021 · 1 day · 7 km away
- 388 haSaint-Martin-d'Arrossa15 February 2019 · 7 days · 36 km away
- 342 haSaint-Étienne-de-Baïgorry16 February 2023 · 5 days · 36 km away
- 999 haOssèsFebruary 2019 · 8 days · 37 km away
- 488 haSaint-Étienne-de-BaïgorryMarch 2021 · 3 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lesaka fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 21 February 2021 and 21 February 2021: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 20 February 2021 at 11:00 and declared extinguished on 21 February 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,108 hectares (11.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Lesaka (378 ha, 6.8 %); Bera (368 ha, 10 %); Irun (357 ha, 8.5 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire came within 2.0 km of the centre of Bera, the closest of the areas it touched. 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 17.8 °C, humidity dropped to 39 % and gusts hit 77 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 3, class Very low.
- 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. 2 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 1,068 official ha against 1,108 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- 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 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.