Selaya fire, 20 February 2021 Selaya, Vega de Pas
The fire started on 20 February 2021 in Selaya, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 322 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 32th largest in Cantabria since 2016 (of 179 with a page). Number 37 in Spain in 2021, of 120.
Compare with…
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
- 322ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 20 Feb 2021 – 20 Feb 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 20 Feb
- 2021
- Danger at start
- 6
- Low · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.6 mm on 21 Feb.
This area had burned before
39% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 124 ha in 2019.
What happened to each town
-
237 ha6.0 %
-
Vega de Pas 776 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the centre85 ha1.0 %
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
- Other natural land70 %
- Coniferous forest21 %
- Agricultural areas8.7 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Several official records match this area
According to EGIF (MITECO), 11 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 237 ha (the satellite measured 322 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
EGIF (MITECO) records each fire that started at a different time or place separately; the satellite sees a single burned area, so this page groups them together. The numbers on the map show where each one started.
When each one burned
1 61 ha 2 10 ha 3 29 ha 4 16 ha 5 22 ha 6 7 ha 7 6 ha 8 6 ha 9 33 ha 10 8 ha 11 39 ha- 1 Vega de Pas Sel de la Carrera 15 February 2021 · 09:04 61 ha · extinguished on 15 February 2021 · cause: arson
- 2 Vega de Pas Cubirquío 15 February 2021 · 09:30 10 ha · extinguished on 15 February 2021 · cause: arson
- 3 Vega de Pas Portilla-Sarapuyosa 15 February 2021 · 14:05 29 ha · extinguished on 15 February 2021 · cause: arson
- 4 Vega de Pas Estallo 16 February 2021 · 08:25 16 ha · extinguished on 16 February 2021 · cause: arson
- 5 Vega de Pas Yera el Terrerón 18 February 2021 · 07:03 22 ha · extinguished on 18 February 2021 · cause: arson
- 6 Vega de Pas Vega el Cerezo 19 February 2021 · 23:10 7 ha · extinguished on 20 February 2021 · cause: arson
- 7 Villacarriedo Tezanos /La Carcava 20 February 2021 6 ha · extinguished on 20 February 2021 · cause: arson
- 8 Vega de Pas Sarapuyosa 20 February 2021 · 02:40 6 ha · extinguished on 20 February 2021 · cause: arson
- 9 Vega de Pas Bustalpellon 20 February 2021 · 10:30 33 ha · extinguished on 20 February 2021 · cause: arson
- 10 Vega de Pas La Gurueba 20 February 2021 · 20:00 8 ha · extinguished on 21 February 2021 · cause: arson
- 11 Vega de Pas La Maza 20 February 2021 · 22:56 39 ha · extinguished on 21 February 2021 · cause: arson
Total according to EGIF (MITECO): 237 ha, 73 % of the 322 ha in the satellite perimeter.
MITECO, Estadística General de Incendios Forestales (EGIF). 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Feb | 16.7 °C | 31 % | 83 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 21 Feb after | 14.8 °C | 41 % | 46 km/h | 8.6 mm | Very low 0 |
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 21 February 2021 the air beside the fire reached 41 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 23: 1.5 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)
Other fires nearby
- 903 haVega de Pas15 February 2019 · 3 days · 3 km away
- 1,540 haSelaya24 February 2026 · 9 days · 5 km away
- 1,745 haVega de PasFebruary 2025 · 5 days · 6 km away
- 822 haSelaya20 February 2021 · 1 day · 6 km away
- 819 haVega de Pas15 February 2019 · 2 days · 7 km away
- 745 haVega de PasFebruary 2021 · 3 days · 7 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Selaya fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 20 February 2021 and 20 February 2021: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 322 hectares (3.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Selaya (237 ha, 6.0 %); Vega de Pas (85 ha, 1.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire came within 0.8 km of the centre of Vega de Pas, 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 16.7 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 83 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 6, class Low.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Spain (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 · 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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 237 official ha against 322 ha of perimeter; similar, but with reservations.
- 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 ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). 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.