Puertollano fire, July 2019 Puertollano
The fire started on 19 July 2019 in Puertollano, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 239 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 12th largest in Ciudad Real since 2016 (of 24 with a page). Number 36 in Spain in 2019, of 102.
- Burnt area
- 239ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 19 Jul 2019 – 20 Jul 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 19 Jul
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 16
- in a single hotspot: 71 MW
- Danger at start
- 47
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 204MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 22 Jul.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
239 ha reached on 19 Jul1.0 %
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
- Coniferous forest54 %
- Agricultural areas30 %
- Broadleaved forest16 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Official record
According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 19 July 2019 and burned 176 ha (the satellite measured 239 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
- Puertollano Casa Huerta del Roble 19 July 2019 · 13:56 176 ha · extinguished on 21 July 2019 · 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Jul | 38.4 °C | 11 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 20 Jul | 38.1 °C | 17 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 21 Jul after | 38.5 °C | 19 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 22 Jul after | 39.3 °C | 15 % | 44 km/h | 1.1 mm | Extreme 52 |
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 21 July 2019 the air beside the fire reached 28 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 22: 1.5 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 · 16Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 852 haHinojosas de CalatravaJuly 2026 · 1 day · 11 km away
- 759 haArgamasilla de CalatravaJuly 2024 · 2 days · 11 km away
- 397 haCalzada de CalatravaJune 2026 · 2 days · 24 km away
- 308 haAlmodóvar del CampoJuly 2021 · 2 days · 26 km away
- 336 haAlmodóvar del CampoJune 2020 · 1 day · 29 km away
- 213 haValenzuela de CalatravaJune 2017 · 1 day · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Puertollano fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 19 July 2019 and 20 July 2019: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 239 hectares (2.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Puertollano (239 ha, 1.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Puertollano and came within 7.1 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 38.4 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 27 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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 · 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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 16 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 176 official ha against 239 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.