Soutomaior fire, August 2016 Redondela, Soutomaior
The fire started on 9 August 2016 in Soutomaior, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 311 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 9 August 2016 at 16:01 and declared extinguished on 13 August 2016.
It is the 22th largest in Pontevedra since 2016 (of 33 with a page). Number 37 in Spain in 2016, of 69.
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- Burnt area
- 311ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 4days
- 9 Aug 2016 – 12 Aug 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 9 Aug
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 11
- in a single hotspot: 116 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 153MW
- 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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.0 mm on 17 Aug.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Redondela 28,874 inhabitants · 2.3 km from the centre192 ha reached on 9 Aug3.7 %
-
119 ha reached on 9 Aug4.8 %
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
- Scrub and transitional woodland37 %
- Other natural land29 %
- Broadleaved forest19 %
- Mixed forest9.2 %
- Agricultural areas2.9 %
- Artificial surfaces2.9 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2015Inside the perimeter there were about 0.65 hectares of built-up land and about 40 residents (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
Official record
According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 9 August 2016 and burned 275 ha (the satellite measured 311 ha).
- Soutomaior 9 August 2016 · 16:01 275 ha · extinguished on 13 August 2016 · cause: arson
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Aug | 26.8 °C | 45 % | 65 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 10 Aug | 27.5 °C | 34 % | 61 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 11 Aug | 29.8 °C | 22 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 12 Aug | 29.8 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 13 Aug after | 26.4 °C | 34 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 14 Aug after | 25.6 °C | 53 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 15 Aug after | 25.0 °C | 61 % | 29 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 16 Aug after | 21.7 °C | 56 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 17 Aug after | 21.9 °C | 70 % | 34 km/h | 2.0 mm | Low 6 |
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.
Detections table · 11Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Soutomaior fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 9 August 2016 to 12 August 2016 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 9 August 2016 to 10 August 2016. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 9 August 2016 at 16:01 and declared extinguished on 13 August 2016.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 311 hectares (3.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Redondela (192 ha, 3.7 %); Soutomaior (119 ha, 4.8 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Soutomaior and came within 1.1 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 27.5 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 65 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class High.
- 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 10 August 2016 → 12 August 2016.
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 9 August 2016 to 10 August 2016. 11 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 275 official ha against 311 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.