Soba fire, February 2026 Soba, Arredondo, Ruesga
The fire started on 24 February 2026 in Soba, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 2,596 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the largest fire in Cantabria since 2016 (of 179 with a page). Number 16 in Spain in 2026, of 195.
The power measured by the satellite is low (12.4 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
- 2,596ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 24 Feb 2026 – 24 Feb 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- municipalities
- Started on
- 24 Feb
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 70
- in a single hotspot: 12 MW
- Danger at start
- 4
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 118MW
- 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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.0 mm on 27 Feb.
This area had burned before
92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 230 ha in 2018, 786 ha in 2019, 540 ha in 2020, 649 ha in 2021, 819 ha in 2022, 882 ha in 2023, 1,960 ha in 2024, 824 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,384 ha that had burned before.
- 1,934 ha Soba fire, January 2024 2,579 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 558 ha Soba fire, January 2022 652 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 464 ha Soba fire, March 2023 519 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 379 ha Soba fire, February 2025 420 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 375 ha Arredondo fire, November 2020 408 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 254 ha Soba fire, February 2025 270 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 241 ha Soba fire, February 2019 320 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 228 ha Soba fire, January 2022 260 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
1,739 ha reached on 24 Feb8.1 %
-
Arredondo 478 inhabitants · 3.0 km from the town655 ha reached on 25 Feb14 %
-
Ruesga 810 inhabitants · 6.0 km from the town122 ha reached on 27 Feb1.4 %
-
San Roque de Riomiera 333 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town81 ha reached on 25 Feb2.3 %
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
- Other natural land91 %
- Broadleaved forest6.5 %
- Agricultural areas2.3 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- LIC Montaña oriental ES1300002
- LIC Río Miera ES1300015
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.
Checked against the press
Checked on 30 September 2026We checked this page against 4 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:
- Also known as
- Incendio de Soba · Incendio de Arredondo · Incendios de Cantabria febrero 2026
- According to the sources, several fires that ended up merging:
- Soba (2 focos el 24-feb a las 19:00 segun Cantabria Directa/El Diario Cantabria
- Arredondo (GIF 25-feb segun Ecoticias) 25 February 2026
- San Roque de Riomiera (1 foco
Sources
- Los incendios en Cantabria se apagan mientras los alcaldes claman: Dejennos cuidar nuestros montes — COPE Cantabria, 26 February 2026
- Se elevan a 10 los incendios forestales activos en Cantabria — El Diario Cantabria, 24 February 2026
- Incendios forestales en Cantabria: Activos en Soba, Vega de Pas, Lamason y Miera — Cantabria Directa, 24 February 2026
- Cronologia de los incendios en Espana durante 2026 — Ecoticias
Official figures are measured differently from satellite ones and sometimes cover only part of the fire.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Feb | 16.2 °C | 33 % | 74 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 25 Feb after | 17.0 °C | 31 % | 68 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 26 Feb after | 18.0 °C | 27 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 27 Feb after | 11.2 °C | 45 % | 61 km/h | 8.0 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 27 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 53 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 30: 2.0 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 · 70Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 2,579 haSobaJanuary 2024 · 6 days · 1 km away
- 822 haSelaya20 February 2021 · 1 day · 5 km away
- 1,540 haSelaya24 February 2026 · 1 day · 6 km away
- 1,745 haVega de PasFebruary 2025 · 4 days · 8 km away
- 903 haVega de Pas15 February 2019 · 2 days · 8 km away
- 745 haVega de PasFebruary 2021 · 1 day · 8 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Soba fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 24 February 2026 and 24 February 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 2,596 hectares (26.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Soba (1,739 ha, 8.1 %); Arredondo (655 ha, 14 %); Ruesga (122 ha, 1.4 %); San Roque de Riomiera (81 ha, 2.3 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of San Roque de Riomiera. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 16.2 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 74 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 4, 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
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 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.