Skip to content
worldfires
ES · Spain · →

Terque fire, July 2019 Huécija, Terque, Bentarique

Out · last detection 14 Jul 2019, 02:32 UTC

The fire started on 13 July 2019 in Terque, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,181 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 6 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 13 July 2019 at 01:30 and declared extinguished on 17 July 2019.

It is the 3th largest in Almeria since 2016 (of 16 with a page). Number 10 in Spain in 2019, of 102.

Burnt area
1,181ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
13 Jul 2019 – 14 Jul 2019
Municipalities hit
6
municipalities
Started on
13 Jul
2019
Heat detections
45
in a single hotspot: 177 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Jul 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Jul14 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

1314

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

32°high
44km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Huécija 526 inhabitants · 2.9 km from the town
    508 ha reached on 13 Jul
    27 %
  2. Terque where it started
    345 ha reached on 13 Jul
    22 %
  3. Bentarique
    303 ha reached on 13 Jul
    27 %
  4. Instinción 492 inhabitants · 3.6 km from the town
    15 ha reached on 13 Jul
    0.4 %
  5. Enix 612 inhabitants · 5.1 km from the town
    9 ha reached on 14 Jul
    0.1 %
  6. Íllar 223 inhabitants · 3.9 km from the town
    3 ha reached on 14 Jul
    0.2 %

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

  • Sclerophyllous scrub94 %
  • Coniferous forest2.4 %
  • Agricultural areas2.0 %
  • Other natural land2.0 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

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.

Official record

According to EGIF (MITECO), this fire started on 13 July 2019 and burned 1,120 ha (the satellite measured 1,181 ha).

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.

Checked against the press

Checked on 30 September 2026

We checked this page against 2 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
incendio de Loma de los Pollicos · incendio del Andarax
Official area reported: 1,200 ha (the satellite measured 1,181 ha)

Sources

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)
13 Jul 32.2 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Jul 30.2 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Jul after 31.3 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Jul after 28.6 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
17 Jul after 26.8 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.6 mm High 24
18 Jul after 27.4 °C 42 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
19 Jul after 30.9 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Jul after 30.4 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
21 Jul after 29.9 °C 36 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Jul after 31.4 °C 27 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Jul after 32.1 °C 20 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Jul after 30.9 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Jul 2019
After · 21 Jul 2019

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 · 45Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Spain ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Terque fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 13 July 2019 and 14 July 2019: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 13 July 2019 at 01:30 and declared extinguished on 17 July 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,181 hectares (11.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 6 municipalities: Huécija (508 ha, 27 %); Terque (345 ha, 22 %); Bentarique (303 ha, 27 %); Instinción (15 ha, 0.4 %); Enix (9 ha, 0.1 %); Íllar (3 ha, 0.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.9 km of Huécija. 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 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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

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
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.

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.