Montederramo fire, 15 October 2017 Montederramo, Vilar de Barrio, Maceda
The fire started on 15 October 2017 in Montederramo, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 631 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 3 recorded fires was detected on 14 October 2017 at 21:50 and declared extinguished on 19 October 2017.
It is the 38th largest in Ourense since 2016 (of 118 with a page). Number 43 in Spain in 2017, of 144.
The power measured by the satellite is low (12.5 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
- 631ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 15 Oct 2017 – 16 Oct 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 15 Oct
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 17
- in a single hotspot: 12 MW
- Danger at start
- 27
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 45MW
- 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 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 18.6 mm on 17 Oct.
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
-
373 ha reached on 15 Oct2.7 %
-
Vilar de Barrio 1,178 inhabitants · 11.1 km from the centre255 ha reached on 15 Oct2.4 %
-
Maceda 2,874 inhabitants · 15.6 km from the centre2 ha0.0 %
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 land53 %
- Broadleaved forest17 %
- Coniferous forest15 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland11 %
- Mixed forest3.3 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 52 %
- LIC Bidueiral de Montederramo ES1130003
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.
Complex of 3 fires according to EGIF (MITECO)
According to EGIF (MITECO), 3 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 553 ha (the satellite measured 631 ha).
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 Vilar de Barrio Rebordechau 10 October 2017 · 19:43 126 ha · extinguished on 13 October 2017 · cause: arson
- 2 Vilar de Barrio Rebordechau 14 October 2017 · 21:50 371 ha · extinguished on 19 October 2017 · cause: arson
- 3 Maceda Teixeira (A) 15 October 2017 · 17:25 56 ha · extinguished on 17 October 2017 · cause: arson
Total according to EGIF (MITECO): 553 ha, 88 % of the 631 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Oct | 22.6 °C | 22 % | 61 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 16 Oct | 18.4 °C | 32 % | 49 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 17 Oct after | 11.2 °C | 51 % | 41 km/h | 18.6 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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 16 October 2017 the air beside the fire reached 157 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 81: 5.4 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 · 17Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,634 haLazaAugust 2022 · 7 days · 10 km away
- 30,754 haChandrexa de QueixaAugust 2025 · 20 days · 14 km away
- 7,090 haVilariño de ConsoJuly 2022 · 10 days · 14 km away
- 24,471 haMonterreiAugust 2025 · 8 days · 28 km away
- 1,987 haPantónSeptember 2025 · 4 days · 31 km away
- 12,026 haA MezquitaAugust 2025 · 9 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Montederramo fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 15 October 2017 and 16 October 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 3 recorded fires was detected on 14 October 2017 at 21:50 and declared extinguished on 19 October 2017.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 631 hectares (6.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Montederramo (373 ha, 2.7 %); Vilar de Barrio (255 ha, 2.4 %); Maceda (2 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Montederramo and came within 5.7 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 22.6 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, class 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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 17 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 553 official ha against 631 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- 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.