Sagama fire, August 2016 Scano di Montiferro, Sagama, Sennariolo
The fire started on 24 August 2016 in Sagama, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,830 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities.
Number 3 in Italy in 2016, of 78.
- Burnt area
- 1,830ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 24 Aug 2016 – 25 Aug 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- municipalities
- Started on
- 24 Aug
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 25
- in a single hotspot: 110 MW
- Danger at start
- 30
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 961MW
- sum of detected power
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 30 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
-
Scano di Montiferro 1,409 inhabitants · 0.2 km from the town1,169 ha reached on 24 Aug19 %
-
472 ha reached on 24 Aug41 %
-
Sennariolo 156 inhabitants · 0.3 km from the town191 ha12 %
-
Flussio 413 inhabitants · 3.8 km from the town0 ha0.0 %
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 areas63 %
- Other natural land27 %
- Sclerophyllous scrub6.1 %
- Broadleaved forest2.6 %
- Artificial surfaces0.9 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Official record
According to CFVA Sardegna, this fire started on 24 August 2016 and burned 1,840 ha (the satellite measured 1,830 ha).
- Scano di Montiferro Funt.ne Triganino 24 August 2016 1,840 ha
Regione Autonoma della Sardegna, Corpo Forestale e di Vigilanza Ambientale: perimetri delle aree percorse dal fuoco (CC BY 4.0). 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Aug | 27.8 °C | 39 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 25 Aug | 26.6 °C | 46 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 26 Aug after | 27.8 °C | 43 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 27 Aug after | 27.1 °C | 53 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 28 Aug after | 27.2 °C | 42 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 29 Aug after | 25.9 °C | 45 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 30 Aug after | 25.4 °C | 58 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 31 Aug after | 26.1 °C | 61 % | 31 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 1 Sept after | 27.4 °C | 51 % | 37 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 2 Sept after | 26.6 °C | 54 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 3 Sept after | 26.9 °C | 51 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 4 Sept after | 25.8 °C | 65 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
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.
Detections table · 25Every 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 Sagama fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 24 August 2016 and 25 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 1,830 hectares (18.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Scano di Montiferro (1,169 ha, 19 %); Sagama (472 ha, 41 %); Sennariolo (191 ha, 12 %); Flussio (0 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.2 km of Scano di Montiferro. 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 27.8 °C, humidity dropped to 39 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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
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
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.