Piloña fire, 30 March 2021 Piloña
The fire started on 30 March 2021 in Piloña, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 202 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 87th largest in Asturias since 2016 (of 225 with a page). Number 62 in Spain in 2021, of 120.
Compare with…
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
- 202ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 30 Mar 2021 – 31 Mar 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 30 Mar
- 2021
- Danger at start
- 4
- Very low · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.6 mm on 2 Apr.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
202 ha0.7 %
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
- Other natural land74 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland22 %
- Broadleaved forest4.0 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Several official records match this area
According to EGIF (MITECO), 3 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 435 ha (the satellite measured 202 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
EGIF (MITECO) records each fire that started at a different time or place separately; the satellite sees a single burned area, so this page groups them together. The numbers on the map show where each one started.
- 1 Piloña Espinaredo 30 March 2021 · 06:16 167 ha · extinguished on 30 March 2021 · cause: arson
- 2 Piloña Rozapanera 31 March 2021 · 10:01 40 ha · extinguished on 31 March 2021 · cause: arson
- 3 Piloña Campon 31 March 2021 · 11:56 228 ha · extinguished on 31 March 2021 · cause: arson
Total according to EGIF (MITECO): 435 ha, 216 % of the 202 ha in the satellite perimeter.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Mar | 19.3 °C | 44 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 31 Mar | 23.9 °C | 28 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 1 Apr after | 18.1 °C | 49 % | 44 km/h | 0.5 mm | Low 6 |
| 2 Apr after | 15.1 °C | 72 % | 33 km/h | 3.6 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 1 April 2021 the air beside the fire reached 59 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 45: 3.0 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)
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Piloña fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 30 March 2021 to 31 March 2021 (2 days). The perimeter dates it from 30 March 2021 to 30 March 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 202 hectares (2.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Piloña (202 ha, 0.7 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Piloña and came within 4.3 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 19.3 °C, humidity dropped to 44 % and gusts hit 30 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 · 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.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 30 March 2021 to 30 March 2021. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 435 official ha against 202 ha of perimeter; similar, but with reservations.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.