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Ribera d'Ebre fire, June 2019 Flix, Maials, Vinebre

Out · last detection 28 Jun 2019, 13:54 UTC

The fire started on 27 June 2019 in Flix, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 6,625 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 8 municipalities.

Number 2 in Spain in 2019, of 102.

Burnt area
6,625ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
27 Jun 2019 – 28 Jun 2019
Municipalities hit
8
municipalities
Started on
27 Jun
2019
Heat detections
98
in a single hotspot: 222 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
3.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Jun 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Jun28 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

2728

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
71km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 14 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. Flix 3,340 inhabitants · 3.1 km from the town where it started
    4,051 ha reached on 27 Jun
    35 %
  2. Maials 951 inhabitants · 3.5 km from the town
    849 ha reached on 27 Jun
    15 %
  3. Vinebre
    754 ha reached on 27 Jun
    28 %
  4. Llardecans 444 inhabitants · 3.3 km from the town
    347 ha
    5.2 %
  5. La Palma d'Ebre 333 inhabitants · 4.3 km from the town
    294 ha reached on 27 Jun
    7.7 %
  6. La Torre de l'Espanyol 427 inhabitants · 4.0 km from the town
    178 ha reached on 26 Jun
    6.4 %
  7. Bovera 244 inhabitants · 3.9 km from the town
    110 ha
    3.3 %
  8. La Granadella 748 inhabitants · 7.7 km from the town
    49 ha reached on 28 Jun
    0.6 %

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 areas43 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub31 %
  • Coniferous forest23 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland2.8 %

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 4,309 ha (the satellite measured 6,625 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 4 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
Incendio de la Ribera de Ebro 2019 · Incendi de la Torre de l'Espanyol · Incendi entre la Torre de l'Espanyol i Vinebre
Declared extinguished: 7 July 2019

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)
26 Jun 32.9 °C 26 % 71 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Jun 37.0 °C 17 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
28 Jun 41.1 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
29 Jun after 41.9 °C 8 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
30 Jun after 36.5 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
1 Jul after 35.8 °C 22 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
2 Jul after 33.6 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Jul after 35.0 °C 24 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Jul after 35.0 °C 23 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
5 Jul after 34.8 °C 28 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
6 Jul after 38.1 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Jul after 38.0 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
8 Jul after 33.2 °C 34 % 62 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Jun 2019
After · 5 Jul 2019

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 27 June 2019 the air beside the fire reached 108 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 42: 2.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak108 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM10113 µg/m³
242526272829301
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 · 98Every 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 Ribera d'Ebre fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 27 June 2019 and 28 June 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 6,625 hectares (66.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 8 municipalities: Flix (4,051 ha, 35 %); Maials (849 ha, 15 %); Vinebre (754 ha, 28 %); Llardecans (347 ha, 5.2 %); La Palma d'Ebre (294 ha, 7.7 %); La Torre de l'Espanyol (178 ha, 6.4 %); Bovera (110 ha, 3.3 %); La Granadella (49 ha, 0.6 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.1 km of Flix. 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 41.1 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 71 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
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.