San Basile fire, August 2019 San Basile, Castrovillari
The fire started on 20 August 2019 in San Basile, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 158 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 71th largest in Cosenza since 2016 (of 145 with a page). Number 48 in Italy in 2019, of 102.
The power measured by the satellite is low (17.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 158ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 3days
- 20 Aug 2019 – 22 Aug 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 20 Aug
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 9
- in a single hotspot: 18 MW
- Danger at start
- 19
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 24MW
- 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 3 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
-
139 ha reached on 21 Aug7.5 %
-
Castrovillari 20,821 inhabitants · 1.3 km from the centre18 ha reached on 22 Aug0.1 %
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
- Sclerophyllous scrub44 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland33 %
- Broadleaved forest23 %
- Agricultural areas0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Aug | 30.6 °C | 43 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 22 Aug | 30.5 °C | 46 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 23 Aug after | 29.5 °C | 48 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 24 Aug after | 29.8 °C | 47 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 25 Aug after | 29.4 °C | 51 % | 21 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 26 Aug after | 29.7 °C | 49 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 27 Aug after | 29.7 °C | 48 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 28 Aug after | 30.3 °C | 44 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 29 Aug after | 29.9 °C | 41 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 30 Aug after | 30.1 °C | 45 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 31 Aug after | 29.9 °C | 46 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 1 Sept after | 28.2 °C | 49 % | 24 km/h | 0.2 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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 23 August 2019 the air beside the fire reached 20 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 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 · 9Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 631 haMorano CalabroJuly 2026 · 7 days · 5 km away
- 1,617 haCastrovillariJuly 2026 · 4 days · 7 km away
- 640 haCassano all'IonioAugust 2019 · 1 day · 11 km away
- 609 haSanta Domenica TalaoSeptember 2025 · 2 days · 31 km away
- 538 haSanta Domenica TalaoAugust 2023 · 5 days · 32 km away
- 643 haSanta Domenica TalaoJuly 2017 · 8 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the San Basile fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 August 2019 to 22 August 2019 (3 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 August 2019 to 22 August 2019.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 158 hectares (1.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: San Basile (139 ha, 7.5 %); Castrovillari (18 ha, 0.1 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire came within 1.3 km of the centre of Castrovillari, the closest of the areas it touched. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.6 °C, humidity dropped to 43 % and gusts hit 25 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 19, class Moderate.
- 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 21 August 2019 to 22 August 2019. 9 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.