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ES · Spain · –

Tineo fire, 28 March 2023 Valdés, Tineo

Out · last detection 31 Mar 2023, 13:31 UTC

The fire started on 28 March 2023 in Tineo, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 9,722 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 27 March 2023 at 23:45 and declared extinguished on 11 April 2023.

It is the largest fire in Asturias since 2016 (of 225 with a page). Number 3 in Spain in 2023, of 124.

Burnt area
9,722ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
28 Mar 2023 – 31 Mar 2023
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
28 Mar
2023
Heat detections
286
in a single hotspot: 60 MW
Danger at start
3
Very low · FWI index
Average daily power
915MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Mar31 Mar
31 Mar 2023

How it evolved, day by day

28 Mar 2023 · 3 MW · 2 30 Mar 2023 · 367 MW · 56 31 Mar 2023 · 2,375 MW · 228
28 Mar 30 Mar 31 Mar

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

The weather it burned in

21°high
74km/h · peak gust
34%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.7 mm on 1 Apr.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 31 ha in 2018, 58 ha in 2020, 8 ha in 2021, 18 ha in 2022.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 6.1% of the area of London (97 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Valdés 10,776 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    8,312 ha reached on 30 Mar
    23 %
  2. Tineo 8,679 inhabitants · 10.8 km from the centre where it started
    1,419 ha reached on 28 Mar
    2.6 %

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

  • Broadleaved forest24 %
  • Other natural land23 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland19 %
  • Mixed forest17 %
  • Coniferous forest14 %
  • Agricultural areas3.2 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 0 %

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.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area6.1 ha
Residents≈ 300

Inside the perimeter there were about 6.1 hectares of built-up land and about 300 residents (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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 27 March 2023 and burned 10,080 ha (the satellite measured 9,722 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 Tineo-Valdés · incendio de Valdés · incendios de Asturias 2023

Sources

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)
28 Mar 19.3 °C 46 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
29 Mar 21.4 °C 34 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
30 Mar 18.1 °C 45 % 74 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
31 Mar 15.8 °C 52 % 71 km/h 0.1 mm Low 10
1 Apr after 11.8 °C 68 % 58 km/h 3.7 mm Very low 0

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 2.9, a minimum humidity of 46% and 1 day without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 19.

FWI at the start 2.9
Minimum humidity 46 %
Days without rain 1
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Cangas del Narcea fire, April 2017
324 ha 8 days FWI 2.0 Min. humidity 46 % 42 km away, in 2017

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

1 day
median duration
138 ha
median area
5 %
went past 1,000 ha
5.0 mm
rain at the end (median; 17 of 19 had it)

It was 70.4 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 4 days, against 1 day.

None of its 19 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 2 of 19, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 5.0 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

3.7 mmfirst rain
1 Aprthe day after it ended
74km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 31 Mar, and on 1 Apr 3.7 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 17 of 19, with a median of 5.0 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Mar 2023
After · 7 Apr 2023

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 · Copernicus

On 31 March 2023 the air beside the fire reached 107 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 33: 2.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak107 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM10191 µg/m³
Optical depth0.58
26 Mar28 Mar30 Mar1 Apr3 Apr
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 286Every 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 Tineo fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 28 March 2023 and 31 March 2023: 4 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), it was detected on 27 March 2023 at 23:45 and declared extinguished on 11 April 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 9,722 hectares (97.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Valdés (8,312 ha, 23 %); Tineo (1,419 ha, 2.6 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire reached the centre of Valdés: the point marking it was inside the burnt area or less than 500 metres from it. That does not mean houses burned.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 21.4 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 74 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 11, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 19. Their median duration was 1 day and their median area 138 ha; 5 % went past 1,000 ha. None of its 19 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 2 of 19, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 5.0 mm.

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.

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 286 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 10,080 official ha against 9,722 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
  • Checked against news and agencies: 2 confirmed sources.
  • 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 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.