Porto do Son fire, August 2016 Porto do Son, Ribeira, A Pobra do Caramiñal
The fire started on 10 August 2016 in Porto do Son, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,819 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 10 August 2016 at 22:43 and declared extinguished on 15 August 2016.
It is the 2th largest in A Coruña since 2016 (of 20 with a page). Number 8 in Spain in 2016, of 69.
- Burnt area
- 1,819ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 3days
- 10 Aug 2016 – 12 Aug 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 10 Aug
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 117
- in a single hotspot: 154 MW
- Danger at start
- 52
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.8GW
- 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 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 17 Aug.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
1,574 ha reached on 11 Aug17 %
-
Ribeira 27,102 inhabitants · 6.6 km from the town205 ha reached on 12 Aug3.0 %
-
A Pobra do Caramiñal 9,126 inhabitants · 4.5 km from the town40 ha reached on 11 Aug1.2 %
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 land61 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland22 %
- Agricultural areas6.6 %
- Broadleaved forest5.3 %
- Coniferous forest4.8 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 1 %
- LIC Complexo húmido de Corrubedo ES1110006
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), 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 1,538 ha (the satellite measured 1,819 ha).
- Porto do Son cabrais 10 August 2016 · 22:43 823 ha · extinguished on 15 August 2016 · cause: unknown
- Porto do Son cernadas 10 August 2016 · 21:43 715 ha · extinguished on 15 August 2016 · 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.
Checked against the press
Checked on 30 September 2026We checked this page against 2 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:
- Also known as
- Incendio de O Son · Incendio de Baroña · Lume do Barbanza
Sources
- Los montes de Porto do Son afectados por incendios encaran su recuperación — Campo Galego, 27 September 2016
- PORTO DO SON: una noche muy peligrosa entre las llamas — Lo que yo te digo, 11 August 2016
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Aug | 25.5 °C | 36 % | 68 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 11 Aug | 28.9 °C | 26 % | 64 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 12 Aug | 27.2 °C | 31 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 13 Aug after | 23.3 °C | 48 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 14 Aug after | 24.4 °C | 55 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 15 Aug after | 21.9 °C | 63 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 16 Aug after | 20.5 °C | 61 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 17 Aug after | 20.7 °C | 61 % | 35 km/h | 2.4 mm | Very low 4 |
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 13 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 61 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 40: 2.7 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 · 117Every 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 Porto do Son fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 10 August 2016 and 12 August 2016: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 10 August 2016 at 22:43 and declared extinguished on 15 August 2016.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,819 hectares (18.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Porto do Son (1,574 ha, 17 %); Ribeira (205 ha, 3.0 %); A Pobra do Caramiñal (40 ha, 1.2 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 4.5 km of A Pobra do Caramiñal. 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 28.9 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 68 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.