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CY · Cyprus · –

Pentalia fire, July 2025 Πενταλιά · Galataria, Pentalia, Statos Agios Fotios

Out · last detection 7 Jul 2025, 23:47 UTC

The fire started on 7 July 2025 in Pentalia, Cyprus, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 378 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Paphos since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 2 in Cyprus in 2025, of 5.

The power measured by the satellite is low (21.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…
Burnt area
378ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
7 Jul 2025 – 8 Jul 2025
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
7 Jul
2025
Heat detections
11
in a single hotspot: 21 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
39MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Jul8 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

7 Jul 2025 · 39 MW · 11

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
38km/h · peak gust
39%lowest humidity

It had gone 36 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. Galataria Γαλαταριά 56 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the centre
    217 ha reached on 7 Jul
    27 %
  2. Pentalia Πενταλιά 63 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the centre where it started
    162 ha reached on 7 Jul
    11 %
  3. Statos Agios Fotios Στατός-Άγιος Φώτιος 243 inhabitants · 1.8 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 areas72 %
  • Other natural land21 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub7.1 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 23 %

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 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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 Τμήμα Δασών, this fire started on 7 July 2025 and burned 406 ha (the satellite measured 378 ha).

Τμήμα Δασών (Departamento de Bosques de Chipre), catálogo de incendios forestales. 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)
7 Jul 31.7 °C 45 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Jul 29.3 °C 39 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Jul after 28.2 °C 56 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
10 Jul after 30.0 °C 45 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Jul after 28.6 °C 47 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Jul after 28.4 °C 47 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Jul after 28.1 °C 51 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
14 Jul after 26.8 °C 54 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
15 Jul after 26.7 °C 68 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
16 Jul after 27.1 °C 71 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
17 Jul after 27.4 °C 64 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
18 Jul after 27.2 °C 63 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 25

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 41.8, a minimum humidity of 45% and 36 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 12.

FWI at the start 41.8
Minimum humidity 45 %
Days without rain 36
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Ora fire, July 2017
117 ha 1 day FWI 44.3 Min. humidity 45 % 53 km away, in 2017

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

Fires in the area that started in similar weather: 12. With fewer than 15 we give no figures: they would be more noise than signal.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
38km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 8 Jul, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Jun 2025
After · 15 Jul 2025

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 9 July 2025 the air beside the fire reached 18 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak18 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1026 µg/m³
Optical depth0.23
5 Jul7 Jul9 Jul11 Jul
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 · 11Every 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 Cyprus

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Pentalia fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 7 July 2025 and 8 July 2025: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 378 hectares (3.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Galataria (217 ha, 27 %); Pentalia (162 ha, 11 %); Statos Agios Fotios (0 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Pentalia and came within 0.5 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.7 °C, humidity dropped to 39 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Cyprus (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 · 1407 · 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.

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 · 1407.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 11 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • Compared with Τμήμα Δασών: 406 official ha against 378 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 2025, 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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported). 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.