Rocchetta e Croce fire, August 2021 Rocchetta e Croce, Giano Vetusto, Calvi Risorta
The fire started on 11 August 2021 in Rocchetta e Croce, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 164 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the 28th largest in Caserta since 2016 (of 69 with a page). Number 179 in Italy in 2021, of 291.
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- Burnt area
- 164ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 6days
- 11 Aug 2021 – 16 Aug 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- municipalities
- Started on
- 11 Aug
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 12
- in a single hotspot: 40 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 84MW
- 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 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 13 Aug.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
155 ha reached on 14 Aug12 %
-
Giano Vetusto 638 inhabitants · 4.2 km from the centre8 ha reached on 14 Aug0.7 %
-
Calvi Risorta 5,469 inhabitants · 3.0 km from the centre1 ha0.1 %
-
0 ha0.0 %
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
- Agricultural areas55 %
- Broadleaved forest27 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland14 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub3.0 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 54 %
- LIC Catena di Monte Maggiore IT8010006
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Aug | 35.5 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 12 Aug | 35.7 °C | 27 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 13 Aug | 35.2 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 1.0 mm | High 25 |
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 12 August 2021 the air beside the fire reached 36 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 27: 1.8 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 · 12Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Rocchetta e Croce fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 11 August 2021 to 16 August 2021 (6 days). The perimeter dates it from 11 August 2021 to 12 August 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 164 hectares (1.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Rocchetta e Croce (155 ha, 12 %); Giano Vetusto (8 ha, 0.7 %); Calvi Risorta (1 ha, 0.1 %); Pietramelara (0 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Rocchetta e Croce and reached its centre: the point marking it was inside the burnt area or less than 500 metres from it. That does not mean houses burned.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Italy (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 · 1515 · 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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 11 August 2021 to 12 August 2021. 12 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- 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 ADM4 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License). 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.