Salanfa fire, July 2020 Shat-ha, Salanfa, Ein Et-teeneh
The fire started on 25 July 2020 in Salanfa, Syria, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 3,654 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the 8th largest in Lattakia since 2016 (of 38 with a page). Number 4 in Syria in 2020, of 23.
The power measured by the satellite is low (1.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 3,654ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 25 Jul 2020 – 25 Jul 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- subdistricts
- Started on
- 25 Jul
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 2
- in a single hotspot: 1 MW
- Danger at start
- 29
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2MW
- 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 35 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
-
3,105 ha17 %
-
Salanfa where it started352 ha reached on 25 Jul2.5 %
-
136 ha2.5 %
-
70 ha1.1 %
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
- Mixed forest31 %
- Coniferous forest25 %
- Other natural land25 %
- Agricultural areas13 %
- Broadleaved forest5.7 %
Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Jul | 31.6 °C | 42 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 26 Jul after | 35.2 °C | 29 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 27 Jul after | 37.4 °C | 22 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 28 Jul after | 36.2 °C | 34 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 29 Jul after | 35.0 °C | 29 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 30 Jul after | 34.0 °C | 35 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 31 Jul after | 32.9 °C | 42 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 1 Aug after | 31.8 °C | 49 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 2 Aug after | 32.0 °C | 46 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 3 Aug after | 31.6 °C | 50 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 4 Aug after | 30.3 °C | 54 % | 52 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 26 |
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 · 2Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,148 haBeit YashoutAugust 2025 · 7 days · 15 km away
- 5,936 haFakhuraOctober 2020 · 4 days · 23 km away
- 3,803 haRabee'aSeptember 2025 · 4 days · 25 km away
- 4,774 haEin El-BaydaJuly 2023 · 6 days · 31 km away
- 4,042 haRabee'aOctober 2020 · 2 days · 31 km away
- 4,838 haRabee'a17 July 2023 · 6 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Salanfa fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 25 July 2020 and 25 July 2020: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 3,654 hectares (36.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Shat-ha (3,105 ha, 17 %); Salanfa (352 ha, 2.5 %); Ein Et-teeneh (136 ha, 2.5 %); Jobet Berghal (70 ha, 1.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 42 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Syria (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.
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 ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.