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Paiania fire, August 2019 Παιανία · Paiania, Kaisariani

Out · last measured on 12 Aug 2019

The fire started on 12 August 2019 in Paiania, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 180 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 25th largest in Attica since 2016 (of 32 with a page). Number 13 in Greece in 2019, of 19.

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We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
180ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
12 Aug 2019 – 12 Aug 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
12 Aug
2019
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Natura 2000
100%
of the perimeter is protected land

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

29°high
66km/h · peak gust
35%lowest humidity

It had gone 25 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Paiania Παιανία where it started
    178 ha
    3.8 %
  2. Kaisariani Καισαριανή
    2 ha
    0.3 %

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 scrub82 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland15 %
  • Coniferous forest1.7 %
  • Agricultural areas1.1 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

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.

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)
12 Aug 28.6 °C 35 % 66 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Aug after 29.1 °C 38 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Aug after 30.9 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
15 Aug after 30.4 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Aug after 28.6 °C 42 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
17 Aug after 27.5 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
18 Aug after 28.0 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Aug after 28.1 °C 25 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Aug after 27.5 °C 24 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Aug after 28.3 °C 31 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Aug after 30.7 °C 30 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Aug 2019
After · 19 Aug 2019

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 13 August 2019 the air beside the fire reached 30 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak30 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1052 µg/m³
101112131415
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Greece ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Paiania fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 12 August 2019 and 12 August 2019: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 180 hectares (1.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Paiania (178 ha, 3.8 %); Kaisariani (2 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.6 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 66 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Greece (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 · 199 · 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 · 199.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

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 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). 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.