Medinilla fire, 24 August 2017 Medinilla, El Tejado, Puente del Congosto
The fire started on 24 August 2017 in Medinilla, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,948 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 5 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 24 August 2017 at 15:40 and declared extinguished on 27 August 2017.
It is the 6th largest in Ávila since 2016 (of 29 with a page). Number 12 in Spain in 2017, of 144.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 1,948ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 3days
- 24 Aug 2017 – 26 Aug 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 5
- municipalities
- Started on
- 24 Aug
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 72
- in a single hotspot: 62 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 165MW
- 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 46 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.5 mm on 27 Aug.
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
-
990 ha reached on 24 Aug43 %
-
El Tejado 83 inhabitants · 1.1 km from the centre472 ha reached on 25 Aug22 %
-
Puente del Congosto 236 inhabitants · 1.1 km from the centre380 ha reached on 25 Aug11 %
-
Santibáñez de Béjar 448 inhabitants · 1.6 km from the centre103 ha reached on 25 Aug3.4 %
-
Sorihuela 255 inhabitants · 4.8 km from the centre4 ha reached on 25 Aug0.2 %
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 land40 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub33 %
- Broadleaved forest11 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland11 %
- Agricultural areas5.5 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Official record
According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 24 August 2017 and burned 1,720 ha (the satellite measured 1,948 ha).
- Medinilla Lanchablanca 24 August 2017 · 15:40 1,720 ha · extinguished on 27 August 2017 · 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 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 Medinilla · Incendio de Santibáñez de Béjar, El Tejado y Puente del Congosto · Cerro del Berrueco / Teta de Gilbuena
- Declared extinguished: 27 August 2017
Sources
- El incendio de Puente del Congosto arrasa 1.033 hectáreas, el mayor del verano en la provincia — La Gaceta de Salamanca, 28 August 2017
- Controlado el incendio que afectó a las localidades de Santibáñez de Béjar, El Tejado y Puente del Congosto — Radio Guijuelo, 25 August 2017
- Continúa activo el incendio forestal declarado este jueves en Puente del Congosto — SALAMANCArtv AL DÍA, 25 August 2017
- Dos incendios en Medinilla y Santibañez de Béjar mantienen en alerta a la población — i-Béjar, 24 August 2017
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Aug | 29.9 °C | 13 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 25 Aug | 30.2 °C | 11 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 26 Aug | 28.5 °C | 22 % | 52 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 46 |
| 27 Aug after | 25.9 °C | 37 % | 65 km/h | 2.5 mm | Low 8 |
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 25 August 2017 the air beside the fire reached 28 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily 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 · 72Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 602 haCandelarioJuly 2022 · 7 days · 24 km away
- 1,116 haJerteApril 2017 · 7 days · 28 km away
- 1,006 haJerteAugust 2016 · 8 days · 32 km away
- 1,025 haLosar de la VeraMarch 2026 · 5 days · 33 km away
- 4,245 haGarganta la OllaAugust 2020 · 6 days · 38 km away
- 479 haGarganta la OllaSeptember 2016 · 3 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Medinilla fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 24 August 2017 to 26 August 2017 (3 days). The perimeter dates it from 24 August 2017 to 25 August 2017. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 24 August 2017 at 15:40 and declared extinguished on 27 August 2017.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,948 hectares (19.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 5 municipalities: Medinilla (990 ha, 43 %); El Tejado (472 ha, 22 %); Puente del Congosto (380 ha, 11 %); Santibáñez de Béjar (103 ha, 3.4 %); Sorihuela (4 ha, 0.2 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Medinilla and came within 0.9 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 30.2 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 24 August 2017 to 25 August 2017. 72 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 1,720 official ha against 1,948 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- 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.