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Quiroga fire, April 2017 Quiroga

Out · last detection 23 Apr 2017, 02:55 UTC

The fire started on 22 April 2017 in Quiroga, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 102 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 32th largest in Lugo since 2016 (of 34 with a page). Number 140 in Spain in 2017, of 144.

Burnt area
102ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
22 Apr 2017 – 23 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
22 Apr
2017
Heat detections
11
in a single hotspot: 34 MW
Danger at start
21
High · FWI index
Energy released
123MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Apr 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Apr23 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

2223

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

The weather it burned in

22°high
37km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 25 Apr.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Quiroga 3,040 inhabitants · 15.6 km from the town where it started
    103 ha reached on 22 Apr
    0.3 %

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 land96 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland2.9 %
  • Broadleaved forest1.0 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

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), this fire started on 22 April 2017 and burned 164 ha (the satellite measured 102 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.

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)
22 Apr 22.0 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
23 Apr 22.3 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.3 mm High 24
24 Apr after 19.8 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 17
25 Apr after 13.7 °C 61 % 52 km/h 2.1 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Apr 2017
After · 30 Apr 2017

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 23 April 2017 the air beside the fire reached 31 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak31 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1039 µg/m³
20212223242526
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 Spain ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Quiroga fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 22 April 2017 and 23 April 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 102 hectares (1.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Quiroga (103 ha, 0.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 15.6 km of Quiroga. 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 22.3 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, class High.
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.