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Scilla fire, June 2017 Scilla, Villa San Giovanni

Out · last measured on 30 Jun 2017

The fire started on 27 June 2017 in Scilla, Italy, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 240 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 33th largest in Reggio di Calabria since 2016 (of 101 with a page). Number 134 in Italy in 2017, of 361.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Reggio di Calabria · 2023Messina · 2023Reggio di Calabria · 2017Reggio di Calabria · 2023

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
240ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
27 Jun 2017 – 30 Jun 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
27 Jun
2017
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Natura 2000
23%
of the perimeter is protected land

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

33°high
45km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 37 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 4 Jul.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Scilla where it started
    133 ha
    3.0 %
  2. Villa San Giovanni
    108 ha
    8.8 %

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

  • Other natural land43 %
  • Broadleaved forest37 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland20 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 23 %

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)
28 Jun 33.2 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
29 Jun 27.6 °C 46 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
30 Jun 32.4 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
1 Jul after 26.8 °C 57 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
2 Jul after 23.1 °C 61 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
3 Jul after 22.8 °C 64 % 48 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 18
4 Jul after 24.6 °C 55 % 45 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Jun 2017
After · 7 Jul 2017

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 1 July 2017 the air beside the fire reached 33 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 24: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak33 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1068 µg/m³
2627282930123
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Italy ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Scilla fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 27 June 2017 to 30 June 2017 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 28 June 2017 to 30 June 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 240 hectares (2.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Scilla (133 ha, 3.0 %); Villa San Giovanni (108 ha, 8.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.

RSS Changes to this page

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 · 1515.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 28 June 2017 to 30 June 2017. No 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.