How long did the Mandanici fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 29 July 2021 and 1 August 2021: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 263 hectares (2.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Mandanici (258 ha, 22 %); Nizza di Sicilia (5 ha, 0.4 %); Pagliara (0 ha, 0.0 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.1 km of Mandanici. 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 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, class High.

Where does this data come from?

From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Italy (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

IT · Italy · 2021-07-29 → 2021-08-01

Mandanici fire, July 2021 Mandanici, Nizza di Sicilia, Pagliara

Out · last detection 1 Aug 2021, 01:47 UTC

The fire started on 29 July 2021 in Mandanici, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 263 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 26th largest in Messina since 2016 (of 70 with a page). Number 112 in Italy in 2021, of 291.

Burnt area: 263ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 4days; 29 Jul 2021 – 1 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit: 3; municipalities
Started on: 29 Jul; 2021
Heat detections: 14; in a single hotspot: 399 MW
Danger at start: 21; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 1.2GW; sum of detected power

Play back 1 Aug 2021

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Jul1 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2930311

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

The weather it burned in

33°high

28km/h · peak gust

31%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

6% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 17 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

Mandanici 505 inhabitants · 1.1 km from the town where it started

258 ha reached on 29 Jul

22 %
Nizza di Sicilia

5 ha reached on 29 Jul

0.4 %
Pagliara 3,211 inhabitants · 7.3 km from the town

0 ha

0.0 %

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

Sclerophyllous scrub49 %
Agricultural areas29 %
Other natural land22 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 1 %

ZEPA + LIC Fiume Fiumedinisi, Monte Scuderi ITA030010

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.

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)
29 Jul	30.1 °C	34 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
30 Jul	32.1 °C	31 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
31 Jul	29.9 °C	37 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
1 Aug	32.6 °C	31 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
2 Aug after	27.0 °C	56 %	32 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 20
3 Aug after	27.5 °C	46 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
4 Aug after	31.0 °C	37 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
5 Aug after	26.0 °C	63 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
6 Aug after	24.8 °C	46 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
7 Aug after	26.4 °C	46 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
8 Aug after	27.9 °C	50 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
9 Aug after	28.9 °C	44 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
10 Aug after	31.4 °C	30 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
11 Aug after	32.1 °C	31 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 22 Jul 2021

After · 8 Aug 2021

Before After

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 30 July 2021 the air beside the fire reached 31 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 26: 1.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak31 µg/m³

Days over the guideline8 days

PM1062 µg/m³

WHO 15

27282930311234

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 · 14Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Italy ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mandanici fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 29 July 2021 and 1 August 2021: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 263 hectares (2.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Mandanici (258 ha, 22 %); Nizza di Sicilia (5 ha, 0.4 %); Pagliara (0 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.1 km of Mandanici. 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 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, class High.
Where does this data come from?: From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Italy (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 · 1515

Protezione Civile ↗
Carabinieri Forestali (1515) ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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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 · 1515.

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 ADM4 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License). 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.

Where it burned