Paracuellos fire, October 2016 Enguídanos, Paracuellos
The fire started on 6 October 2016 in Paracuellos, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 391 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 6 October 2016 at 15:15 and declared extinguished on 11 October 2016.
Number 32 in Spain in 2016, of 69.
- Burnt area
- 391ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 6 Oct 2016 – 6 Oct 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 6 Oct
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 4
- in a single hotspot: 113 MW
- Danger at start
- 52
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 253MW
- 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 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.2 mm on 12 Oct.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Enguídanos 274 inhabitants · 6.5 km from the town197 ha1.2 %
-
195 ha reached on 6 Oct1.6 %
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
- Scrub and transitional woodland58 %
- Other natural land25 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub6.4 %
- Agricultural areas5.9 %
- Coniferous forest3.9 %
- Broadleaved forest0.5 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 7 %
- ZEPA + LIC Hoces del Cabriel, Guadazaón y ojos de Moya ES4230013
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 6 October 2016 and burned 419 ha (the satellite measured 391 ha).
- Paracuellos 6 October 2016 · 15:15 419 ha · extinguished on 11 October 2016 · cause: negligence
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Oct | 27.6 °C | 13 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 7 Oct after | 26.8 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 8 Oct after | 26.8 °C | 13 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 9 Oct after | 25.3 °C | 34 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 10 Oct after | 25.3 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 37 |
| 11 Oct after | 24.7 °C | 21 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 12 Oct after | 15.2 °C | 53 % | 31 km/h | 8.2 mm | Very low 1 |
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 6 October 2016 the air beside the fire reached 31 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 24: 1.6 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 · 4Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Paracuellos fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 6 October 2016 and 6 October 2016: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 6 October 2016 at 15:15 and declared extinguished on 11 October 2016.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 391 hectares (3.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Enguídanos (197 ha, 1.2 %); Paracuellos (195 ha, 1.6 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 6.5 km of Enguídanos. 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 27.6 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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
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.