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Montiferru fire, July 2021 Cuglieri, Scano di Montiferro, Santu Lussurgiu

Out · last detection 29 Jul 2021, 12:25 UTC

The fire started on 24 July 2021 in Bonarcado, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 13,278 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 12 municipalities.

The largest in Italy in 2021, of 291.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Sagama · 2016Sindia · 2019Sindia · 2021Pozzomaggiore · 2024

Burnt area
13,278ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
6days
24 Jul 2021 – 29 Jul 2021
Municipalities hit
12
municipalities
Started on
24 Jul
2021
Heat detections
669
in a single hotspot: 356 MW
Danger at start
51
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
1.9GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Jul29 Jul
29 Jul 2021

How it evolved, day by day

24 Jul 2021 · 172 MW · 8 25 Jul 2021 · 7,414 MW · 652 26 Jul 2021 · 34 MW · 8 29 Jul 2021 · 24 MW · 1
24 Jul 25 Jul 26 Jul 29 Jul

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
74km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

11% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,421 ha in 2016, 63 ha in 2019, 28 ha in 2020.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 8.4% of the area of London (133 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Cuglieri 2,468 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    4,690 ha reached on 25 Jul
    39 %
  2. Scano di Montiferro 1,409 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    1,982 ha reached on 25 Jul
    33 %
  3. Santu Lussurgiu 2,215 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the centre
    1,808 ha reached on 25 Jul
    18 %
  4. Tresnuraghes 605 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the centre
    1,693 ha reached on 25 Jul
    53 %
  5. Sennariolo 156 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    1,474 ha reached on 25 Jul
    94 %
  6. Sagama 190 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    483 ha reached on 26 Jul
    42 %
  7. Bonarcado 1,520 inhabitants · 1.4 km from the centre where it started
    403 ha reached on 24 Jul
    14 %
  8. Flussio 413 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    402 ha reached on 25 Jul
    58 %
  9. Magomadas
    299 ha reached on 25 Jul
    33 %
  10. Sindia 1,583 inhabitants · 3.3 km from the centre
    36 ha reached on 26 Jul
    0.6 %
  11. Suni 977 inhabitants · 1.6 km from the centre
    29 ha reached on 29 Jul
    0.6 %
  12. Tinnura 246 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the centre
    0 ha
    0.0 %

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

  • Agricultural areas50 %
  • Broadleaved forest18 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub16 %
  • Other natural land13 %
  • Coniferous forest1.9 %
  • Artificial surfaces0.8 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 0 %

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 2020
Built-up area50 ha
Residents≈ 2,400

Inside the perimeter there were about 50 hectares of built-up land and about 2,400 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 CFVA Sardegna, this fire started on 23 July 2021 and burned 12,544 ha (the satellite measured 13,278 ha).

Regione Autonoma della Sardegna, Corpo Forestale e di Vigilanza Ambientale: perimetri delle aree percorse dal fuoco (CC BY 4.0). 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)
24 Jul 36.3 °C 16 % 74 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Jul 35.3 °C 21 % 71 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 Jul 34.4 °C 22 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Jul 30.3 °C 33 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Jul 33.3 °C 22 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Jul 34.0 °C 25 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Jul after 31.5 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 Jul after 33.1 °C 28 % 68 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Aug after 25.4 °C 60 % 74 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
2 Aug after 24.2 °C 48 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
3 Aug after 28.2 °C 35 % 49 km/h 0.6 mm High 24
4 Aug after 29.6 °C 41 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
5 Aug after 24.7 °C 49 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
6 Aug after 29.4 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
7 Aug after 35.6 °C 20 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
8 Aug after 31.0 °C 44 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Jul 2021
After · 5 Aug 2021

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 25 July 2021 the air beside the fire reached 48 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 30: 2.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak48 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM1084 µg/m³
222324252627282930311
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 · 669Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Italy ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Montiferru fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 24 July 2021 and 29 July 2021: 6 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 13,278 hectares (132.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 12 municipalities: Cuglieri (4,690 ha, 39 %); Scano di Montiferro (1,982 ha, 33 %); Santu Lussurgiu (1,808 ha, 18 %); Tresnuraghes (1,693 ha, 53 %); Sennariolo (1,474 ha, 94 %); Sagama (483 ha, 42 %); Bonarcado (403 ha, 14 %); Flussio (402 ha, 58 %); Magomadas (299 ha, 33 %); Sindia (36 ha, 0.6 %); Suni (29 ha, 0.6 %); Tinnura (0 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire reached the centre of Cuglieri: the point marking it was inside the burnt area or less than 500 metres from it. That does not mean houses burned.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 74 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, class Extreme.
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 · 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.

RSS Changes to this page

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?

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 669 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • Compared with CFVA Sardegna: 12,544 official ha against 13,278 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
  • 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.