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Pueyo fire, August 2016 Artajona, Pueyo, Añorbe

Out · last detection 27 Aug 2016, 02:36 UTC

The fire started on 25 August 2016 in Pueyo, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 3,617 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 6 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Navarre since 2016 (of 26 with a page). Number 2 in Spain in 2016, of 69.

Burnt area
3,617ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
25 Aug 2016 – 26 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
6
municipalities
Started on
25 Aug
2016
Heat detections
84
in a single hotspot: 242 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
3.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Aug26 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

252627

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

34°high
48km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 25 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. Artajona 1,783 inhabitants · 3.0 km from the town
    969 ha reached on 26 Aug
    14 %
  2. Pueyo 384 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town where it started
    888 ha reached on 25 Aug
    42 %
  3. Añorbe 622 inhabitants · 1.8 km from the town
    744 ha reached on 26 Aug
    31 %
  4. Garínoain 527 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the town
    420 ha reached on 25 Aug
    40 %
  5. Barásoain 601 inhabitants · 1.4 km from the town
    334 ha reached on 26 Aug
    24 %
  6. Tafalla 10,854 inhabitants · 4.6 km from the town
    264 ha reached on 26 Aug
    2.7 %

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

  • Agricultural areas62 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub23 %
  • Coniferous forest5.4 %
  • Broadleaved forest3.2 %
  • Other natural land2.4 %
  • Mixed forest1.4 %
  • Other land cover1.1 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland1.1 %

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

Official record

According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 25 August 2016 and burned 1,454 ha (the satellite measured 3,617 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

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 2026

We checked this page against 3 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
Incendio de Tafalla · Incendio de la Zona Media · Incendio de Pueyo

Sources

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)
25 Aug 33.9 °C 16 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
26 Aug 33.1 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
27 Aug after 33.7 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Aug after 28.5 °C 49 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Aug after 23.3 °C 48 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Aug after 27.7 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
31 Aug after 30.3 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Sept after 31.9 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 Sept after 34.3 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Sept after 35.0 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Sept after 35.1 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Sept after 30.5 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Sept after 34.2 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Aug 2016
After · 2 Sept 2016

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 84Every 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 Spain ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Pueyo fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 25 August 2016 and 26 August 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 3,617 hectares (36.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 6 municipalities: Artajona (969 ha, 14 %); Pueyo (888 ha, 42 %); Añorbe (744 ha, 31 %); Garínoain (420 ha, 40 %); Barásoain (334 ha, 24 %); Tafalla (264 ha, 2.7 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Pueyo. 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 33.9 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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
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.

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.