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Navalacruz fire, August 2021 Sotalbo, Riofrío, Solosancho

Out · last detection 20 Aug 2021, 12:14 UTC

The fire started on 14 August 2021 in Navalacruz, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 23,078 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 15 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 14 August 2021 at 10:40 and declared extinguished on 26 August 2021.

It is the 2th largest in Ávila since 2016 (of 29 with a page). The largest in Spain in 2021, of 120.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Navalacruz · 2019Navaluenga · 2025Gavilanes · 2019Burgohondo · 2026

Burnt area
23,078ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
7days
14 Aug 2021 – 20 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
15
municipalities
Started on
14 Aug
2021
Heat detections
1,266
in a single hotspot: 1,121 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
6.5GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Aug20 Aug
20 Aug 2021

How it evolved, day by day

14 Aug 2021 · 1,552 MW · 26 15 Aug 2021 · 30,746 MW · 899 16 Aug 2021 · 5,658 MW · 300 17 Aug 2021 · 894 MW · 38 18 Aug 2021 · 1 MW · 1 20 Aug 2021 · 20 MW · 2
14 Aug 15 Aug 16 Aug 17 Aug 18 Aug 20 Aug

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
65km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

It had gone 38 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.3 mm on 24 Aug.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 65 ha in 2019.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 15% of the area of London (231 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. Sotalbo 234 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    7,578 ha reached on 14 Aug
    84 %
  2. Riofrío 188 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    3,715 ha reached on 15 Aug
    57 %
  3. Solosancho 750 inhabitants · 1.1 km from the centre
    2,722 ha reached on 15 Aug
    52 %
  4. San Juan del Molinillo 238 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the centre
    2,720 ha reached on 15 Aug
    76 %
  5. Navalacruz 192 inhabitants · 2.0 km from the centre where it started
    2,385 ha reached on 14 Aug
    48 %
  6. Navalmoral 445 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    1,278 ha reached on 16 Aug
    29 %
  7. La Hija de Dios 79 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    945 ha reached on 15 Aug
    75 %
  8. Mironcillo 110 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    596 ha reached on 15 Aug
    39 %
  9. San Juan de la Nava 422 inhabitants · 3.1 km from the centre
    504 ha reached on 16 Aug
    8.3 %
  10. El Barraco 2,086 inhabitants · 4.4 km from the centre
    366 ha reached on 16 Aug
    2.4 %
  11. Navarredondilla 146 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the centre
    241 ha reached on 16 Aug
    12 %
  12. Narros del Puerto 26 inhabitants · 2.2 km from the centre
    33 ha reached on 15 Aug
    3.2 %
  13. Burgohondo 1,269 inhabitants · 2.4 km from the centre
    6 ha
    0.1 %
  14. Cepeda la Mora 63 inhabitants · 2.3 km from the centre
    6 ha
    0.2 %
  15. Mengamuñoz 60 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    5 ha reached on 15 Aug
    0.4 %

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

  • Sclerophyllous scrub60 %
  • Other natural land30 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland3.6 %
  • Coniferous forest3.4 %
  • Agricultural areas2.5 %
  • Broadleaved forest0.6 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 49 %

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 area16 ha
Residents≈ 350

Inside the perimeter there were about 16 hectares of built-up land and about 350 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 EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 14 August 2021 and burned 21,139 ha (the satellite measured 23,078 ha).

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 29 September 2026

We checked this page against 3 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
incendio de Navalacruz-Cepeda la Mora · incendio de Ávila · incendio del valle del Amblés
Official area reported: 21,312 ha (the satellite measured 23,078 ha)
Declared under control (not yet extinguished): 21 August 2021

Sources

Official figures are measured differently from satellite ones and sometimes cover only part of the fire.

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)
14 Aug 32.3 °C 10 % 65 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 Aug 31.5 °C 5 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
16 Aug 24.4 °C 11 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 Aug 22.1 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Aug 23.7 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 39
19 Aug 24.5 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Aug 24.5 °C 16 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Aug after 25.6 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Aug after 26.8 °C 17 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Aug after 27.6 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 42
24 Aug after 25.0 °C 27 % 55 km/h 2.3 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Aug 2021
After · 27 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.

Detections table · 1,266Every 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 Spain ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Navalacruz fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 14 August 2021 and 20 August 2021: 7 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 14 August 2021 at 10:40 and declared extinguished on 26 August 2021.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 23,078 hectares (230.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 15 municipalities: Sotalbo (7,578 ha, 84 %); Riofrío (3,715 ha, 57 %); Solosancho (2,722 ha, 52 %); San Juan del Molinillo (2,720 ha, 76 %); Navalacruz (2,385 ha, 48 %); Navalmoral (1,278 ha, 29 %); La Hija de Dios (945 ha, 75 %); Mironcillo (596 ha, 39 %); San Juan de la Nava (504 ha, 8.3 %); El Barraco (366 ha, 2.4 %); Navarredondilla (241 ha, 12 %); Narros del Puerto (33 ha, 3.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire reached the centre of Sotalbo: 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 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 65 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, class Extreme.
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.

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
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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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 1,266 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 21,139 official ha against 23,078 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
  • Checked against news and agencies: 3 confirmed sources.
  • 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 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.