Los Tojos fire, March 2017 Cabuérniga, Los Tojos
The fire started on 11 March 2017 in Los Tojos, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 140 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 122th largest in Cantabria since 2016 (of 179 with a page). Number 120 in Spain in 2017, of 144.
The power measured by the satellite is low (2.7 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
- 140ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 11 Mar 2017 – 11 Mar 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 11 Mar
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 9
- in a single hotspot: 3 MW
- Danger at start
- 0
- Very low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 13MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
11 Mar 2017 · 13 MW · 9
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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 17.2 mm on 12 Mar.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Cabuérniga 976 inhabitants · 4.9 km from the centre86 ha reached on 11 Mar1.0 %
-
53 ha reached on 11 Mar0.6 %
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
- Other natural land89 %
- Broadleaved forest11 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2015Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, 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
Several official records match this area
According to EGIF (MITECO), 3 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 361 ha (the satellite measured 140 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
EGIF (MITECO) records each fire that started at a different time or place separately; the satellite sees a single burned area, so this page groups them together. The numbers on the map show where each one started.
- 1 Cabuérniga Bucedrum Nre6656 10 March 2017 · 19:30 123 ha · extinguished on 11 March 2017 · cause: arson
- 2 Cabuérniga Perroiz Nre6072 10 March 2017 · 21:00 201 ha · extinguished on 11 March 2017 · cause: arson
- 3 Cabuérniga Matilla los Lobos Nre6076 11 March 2017 · 19:30 37 ha · extinguished on 12 March 2017 · cause: arson
Total according to EGIF (MITECO): 361 ha, 258 % of the 140 ha in the satellite perimeter.
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Mar | 16.0 °C | 50 % | 34 km/h | 3.1 mm | Very low 0 |
| 12 Mar after | 8.9 °C | 80 % | 62 km/h | 17.2 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 · 9Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Los Tojos fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 11 March 2017 and 11 March 2017: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 140 hectares (1.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cabuérniga (86 ha, 1.0 %); Los Tojos (53 ha, 0.6 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Los Tojos and came within 1.8 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 16.0 °C, humidity dropped to 50 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 0, 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. 9 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 361 official ha against 140 ha of perimeter; similar, but with reservations.
- 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 2015, 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.