Selaya fire, February 2023 Selaya
The fire started on 12 February 2023 in Selaya, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 317 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 4 recorded fires was detected on 12 February 2023 at 15:20 and declared extinguished on 12 February 2023.
It is the 34th largest in Cantabria since 2016 (of 179 with a page). Number 33 in Spain in 2023, of 124.
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
- 317ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 12 Feb 2023 – 13 Feb 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 12 Feb
- 2023
- Danger at start
- 3
- Very low · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.8 mm on 21 Feb.
This area had burned before
96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 146 ha in 2018, 139 ha in 2019, 163 ha in 2020, 283 ha in 2021, 231 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 304 ha that had burned before.
- 283 ha Selaya fire, February 2021 822 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 223 ha San Roque de Riomiera fire, December 2021 578 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 163 ha Vega de Pas fire, February 2020 617 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 146 ha Selaya fire, December 2018 178 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 105 ha Vega de Pas fire, February 2019 903 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9 ha Vega de Pas fire, February 2022 482 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
317 ha8.1 %
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
- Other natural land86 %
- Broadleaved forest11 %
- Agricultural areas2.6 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Complex of 4 fires according to EGIF (MITECO)
According to EGIF (MITECO), 4 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 256 ha (the satellite measured 317 ha).
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.
- 1 Selaya Pisueña/Guzmazan 11 February 2023 7 ha · extinguished on 11 February 2023 · cause: arson
- 2 Selaya pisueña. Losa 11 February 2023 · 20:25 39 ha · extinguished on 11 February 2023 · cause: arson
- 3 Selaya Pisueña / Coterotejo 12 February 2023 · 15:20 187 ha · extinguished on 12 February 2023 · cause: arson
- 4 Selaya Campillo 12 February 2023 · 15:20 23 ha · extinguished on 14 February 2023 · cause: arson
Total according to EGIF (MITECO): 256 ha, 81 % of the 317 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Feb | 12.4 °C | 33 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 13 Feb | 14.7 °C | 34 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 14 Feb after | 12.8 °C | 42 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 15 Feb after | 13.4 °C | 45 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 16 Feb after | 13.4 °C | 50 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 17 Feb after | 14.2 °C | 50 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 18 Feb after | 15.0 °C | 37 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 19 Feb after | 12.9 °C | 60 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 20 Feb after | 16.7 °C | 47 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 21 Feb after | 13.4 °C | 56 % | 25 km/h | 2.8 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 15 February 2023 the air beside the fire reached 20 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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
- 1,540 haSelaya24 February 2026 · 9 days · 1 km away
- 822 haSelaya20 February 2021 · 1 day · 1 km away
- 903 haVega de Pas15 February 2019 · 3 days · 2 km away
- 1,745 haVega de PasFebruary 2025 · 5 days · 5 km away
- 2,596 haSobaFebruary 2026 · 4 days · 6 km away
- 819 haVega de Pas15 February 2019 · 2 days · 6 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Selaya fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 12 February 2023 and 13 February 2023: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 4 recorded fires was detected on 12 February 2023 at 15:20 and declared extinguished on 12 February 2023.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 317 hectares (3.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Selaya (317 ha, 8.1 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Selaya and came within 5.4 km of its centre. 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 14.7 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 3, class Very 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): 256 official ha against 317 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- 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.