Padrenda fire, February 2019 Padrenda, Quintela de Leirado
The fire started on 27 February 2019 in Padrenda, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 259 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 27 February 2019 at 06:55 and declared extinguished on 27 February 2019.
It is the 63th largest in Ourense since 2016 (of 118 with a page). Number 31 in Spain in 2019, of 102.
- Burnt area
- 259ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 27 Feb 2019 – 27 Feb 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 27 Feb
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 10
- in a single hotspot: 61 MW
- Danger at start
- 4
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 220MW
- sum of detected power
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 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.8 mm on 3 Mar.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
257 ha reached on 27 Feb4.5 %
-
Quintela de Leirado 587 inhabitants · 4.2 km from the town2 ha0.1 %
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
- Other natural land95 %
- Broadleaved forest4.6 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- LIC Baixa Limia ES1130001
- ZEPA Baixa Limia - Serra do Xurés ES0000376
- LIC Peneda / Gerês PTCON0001
- ZEPA Serra do Gerês PTZPE0002
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.
Official record
According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 27 February 2019 and burned 225 ha (the satellite measured 259 ha).
- Padrenda Gorgua 27 February 2019 · 06:55 225 ha · extinguished on 27 February 2019 · 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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Feb | 10.8 °C | 57 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 28 Feb after | 11.9 °C | 49 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 1 Mar after | 10.9 °C | 69 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 2 Mar after | 12.9 °C | 56 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 3 Mar after | 11.3 °C | 68 % | 86 km/h | 7.8 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 25 February 2019 the air beside the fire reached 21 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 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 · 10Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,074 haEntrimoSeptember 2016 · 3 days · 20 km away
- 3,333 haAs NevesOctober 2017 · 1 day · 24 km away
- 3,893 haMonção Longos ValesOctober 2017 · 2 days · 25 km away
- 3,240 haMuíñosOctober 2017 · 2 days · 25 km away
- 3,096 haCarballeda de AviaAugust 2025 · 5 days · 27 km away
- 6,662 haArcos de Valdevez Cabana Maior8 August 2016 · 5 days · 28 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Padrenda fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 27 February 2019 and 27 February 2019: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 27 February 2019 at 06:55 and declared extinguished on 27 February 2019.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 259 hectares (2.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Padrenda (257 ha, 4.5 %); Quintela de Leirado (2 ha, 0.1 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 4.2 km of Quintela de Leirado. 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 10.8 °C, humidity dropped to 57 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 4, class Very low.
- 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
Satellite cross-check
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
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.