Venosa fire, October 2026 Forenza, Maschito, Rapolla
Satellites first detected fire on 4 October 2026 in Venosa, Italy. It has been active for 3 days, with 23 heat detections and an area with fire of about 182 hectares rebuilt from them, spread across 12 municipalities.
The power measured by the satellite is low (19.4 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Copernicus has not yet published the burnt perimeter, which takes a few days to measure on satellite imagery. For now the area is the one rebuilt from heat detections (about 14 hectares per pixel). When the perimeter arrives, this page picks it up on its own and keeps the same address.
- Area with fire
- ≈ 182ha
- rebuilt from hotspots, no official perimeter yet
- Duration
- 3days
- 4 Oct 2026 – 6 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 12
- municipalities
- Started on
- 4 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 23
- in a single hotspot: 19 MW
- Danger at start
- 21
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 151MW
- 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 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.2 mm on 8 Oct.
What happened to each town
-
70 ha reached on 4 Oct0.6 %
-
Maschito 1,465 inhabitants · 2.0 km from the town42 ha reached on 4 Oct0.9 %
-
Rapolla 4,165 inhabitants · 1.1 km from the town28 ha reached on 4 Oct0.9 %
-
Genzano di Lucania 5,240 inhabitants · 8.0 km from the town28 ha0.1 %
-
Acerenza 2,204 inhabitants · 4.7 km from the town28 ha reached on 4 Oct0.4 %
-
Venosa 10,913 inhabitants · 1.5 km from the town14 ha reached on 4 Oct0.1 %
-
Banzi 1,160 inhabitants · 6.9 km from the town14 ha0.2 %
-
Palazzo San Gervasio 4,432 inhabitants · 1.5 km from the town0 ha reached on 5 Oct0.0 %
-
Melfi 17,092 inhabitants · 1.6 km from the town0 ha reached on 5 Oct0.0 %
-
Minervino Murge 8,171 inhabitants · 15.4 km from the town0 ha0.0 %
-
Montemilone 1,372 inhabitants · 4.8 km from the town0 ha reached on 5 Oct0.0 %
-
Barile 2,555 inhabitants · 4.0 km from the town0 ha reached on 4 Oct0.0 %
Area with fire inside each municipality, rebuilt from heat detections (about 14 hectares per VIIRS pixel). An estimate until the official perimeter arrives. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Oct | 23.9 °C | 32 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 5 Oct | 24.0 °C | 32 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 6 Oct | 24.0 °C | 32 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 7 Oct after | 26.3 °C | 40 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 8 Oct after | 25.9 °C | 53 % | 41 km/h | 2.2 mm | Low 8 |
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 3 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 17 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)
Detections table · 23Every 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 Venosa fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite, it burned from 4 October 2026 to 6 October 2026 (3 days between the first and the last detection). There is no perimeter yet to date it.
- How much area did it burn?
- There is no official perimeter yet. Heat detections rebuild about 182 hectares with fire (1.8 km²); Copernicus will publish the measured figure within days.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 12 municipalities: Forenza (70 ha, 0.6 %); Maschito (42 ha, 0.9 %); Rapolla (28 ha, 0.9 %); Genzano di Lucania (28 ha, 0.1 %); Acerenza (28 ha, 0.4 %); Venosa (14 ha, 0.1 %); Banzi (14 ha, 0.2 %); Palazzo San Gervasio (0 ha, 0.0 %); Melfi (0 ha, 0.0 %); Minervino Murge (0 ha, 0.0 %); Montemilone (0 ha, 0.0 %); Barile (0 ha, 0.0 %).
- Is the Venosa fire still active?
- No fire detections since 6 Oct 2026, 12:06 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.1 km of Rapolla. 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 24.0 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 27 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Italy (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 · 1515
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 ADM4 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License). 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.