How long did the Quiroga fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 14 September 2019 and 14 September 2019: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 13 September 2019 at 20:40 and declared extinguished on 16 September 2019.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 130 hectares (1.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Quiroga (130 ha, 0.4 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.7 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 25.8 °C, humidity dropped to 40 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 16, class Moderate.

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.

ES · Spain · 2019-09-14 → 2019-09-14

Quiroga fire, September 2019 Quiroga

Out · last detection 14 Sept 2019, 03:08 UTC

The fire started on 14 September 2019 in Quiroga, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 130 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 13 September 2019 at 20:40 and declared extinguished on 16 September 2019.

It is the 26th largest in Lugo since 2016 (of 34 with a page). Number 78 in Spain in 2019, of 102.

Burnt area: 130ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 14 Sept 2019 – 14 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 14 Sept; 2019
Heat detections: 21; in a single hotspot: 46 MW
Danger at start: 16; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 439MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Sept14 Sept

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

26°high

40km/h · peak gust

40%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.7 mm on 16 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Quiroga 3,040 inhabitants · 3.7 km from the town where it started

130 ha reached on 14 Sept

0.4 %

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 land94 %
Broadleaved forest3.8 %
Agricultural areas1.5 %
Coniferous forest0.8 %

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

Official record

According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 13 September 2019 and burned 124 ha (the satellite measured 130 ha).

Quiroga Vilañán 13 September 2019 · 20:40 124 ha · extinguished on 16 September 2019 · 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.

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)
14 Sept	25.8 °C	40 %	40 km/h	0.7 mm	Moderate 16
15 Sept after	26.0 °C	44 %	36 km/h	0.9 mm	Moderate 13
16 Sept after	22.8 °C	57 %	27 km/h	3.7 mm	Very low 2

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 7 Sept 2019

After · 21 Sept 2019

Before After

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 15 September 2019 the air beside the fire reached 17 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak17 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1037 µg/m³

WHO 15

121314151617

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 · 21Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Spain ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Quiroga fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 14 September 2019 and 14 September 2019: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 13 September 2019 at 20:40 and declared extinguished on 16 September 2019.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 130 hectares (1.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Quiroga (130 ha, 0.4 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.7 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 25.8 °C, humidity dropped to 40 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 16, class Moderate.
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

MITECO · Incendios forestales ↗
Protección Civil ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned