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ES · Spain · –

Villablino fire, August 2025 Villablino, Cangas del Narcea, Somiedo

Out · last detection 19 Aug 2025, 02:57 UTC

The fire started on 9 August 2025 in Villablino, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 4,285 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 9th largest in León since 2016 (of 86 with a page). Number 18 in Spain in 2025, of 158.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Belmonte de Miranda · 2023Salas · 2019Cangas del Narcea · 2024Cangas del Narcea · 2024

Burnt area
4,285ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
11days
9 Aug 2025 – 19 Aug 2025
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
9 Aug
2025
Heat detections
613
in a single hotspot: 423 MW
Danger at start
11
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
2.3GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Aug19 Aug
19 Aug 2025

How it evolved, day by day

9 Aug 2025 · 784 MW · 13 10 Aug 2025 · 412 MW · 40 11 Aug 2025 · 4 MW · 2 13 Aug 2025 · 1,450 MW · 38 14 Aug 2025 · 2,655 MW · 82 15 Aug 2025 · 12,766 MW · 224 16 Aug 2025 · 3,754 MW · 144 17 Aug 2025 · 848 MW · 59 18 Aug 2025 · 7 MW · 1 19 Aug 2025 · 41 MW · 10
9 Aug 11 Aug 15 Aug 18 Aug

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
54km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 28 Aug.

This area had burned before

3% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 125 ha in 2024.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.7% of the area of London (43 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. Villablino 7,585 inhabitants · 7.1 km from the centre where it started
    1,764 ha reached on 9 Aug
    7.7 %
  2. Cangas del Narcea 11,282 inhabitants · 15.2 km from the centre
    1,723 ha reached on 13 Aug
    2.1 %
  3. Somiedo 1,031 inhabitants · 6.8 km from the centre
    799 ha reached on 15 Aug
    2.8 %

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

  • Other natural land90 %
  • Broadleaved forest8.4 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland1.3 %
  • Agricultural areas0.5 %

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.

Checked against the press

Checked on 30 September 2026

We checked this page against 4 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
incendio de Villablino · incendio de Laciana · incendio de Orallo-Caboalles
Declared under control (not yet extinguished): 19 August 2025

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)
9 Aug 23.6 °C 40 % 29 km/h 0.9 mm Low 11
10 Aug 27.8 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
11 Aug 25.6 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
12 Aug 25.5 °C 22 % 54 km/h 1.7 mm Moderate 14
13 Aug 21.8 °C 36 % 42 km/h 1.2 mm Low 9
14 Aug 24.4 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
15 Aug 27.1 °C 17 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Aug 26.7 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
17 Aug 24.1 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
18 Aug 13.5 °C 75 % 31 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 12
19 Aug 14.8 °C 47 % 36 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 12
20 Aug after 12.8 °C 56 % 41 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 13
21 Aug after 14.3 °C 57 % 34 km/h 0.7 mm Low 10
22 Aug after 17.6 °C 41 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
23 Aug after 20.8 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
24 Aug after 20.3 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 18
25 Aug after 22.6 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
26 Aug after 19.3 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
27 Aug after 13.6 °C 46 % 43 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 13
28 Aug after 12.1 °C 45 % 46 km/h 1.4 mm Low 8

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 11.2, a minimum humidity of 40% and 19 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 33.

FWI at the start 11.2
Minimum humidity 40 %
Days without rain 19
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Belmonte de Miranda fire, October 2023
105 ha 2 days FWI 10.8 Min. humidity 39 % 20 km away, in 2023

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 4.7 mm on 14 Oct.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

2 days
median duration
191 ha
median area
3 %
went past 1,000 ha
6.0 mm
rain at the end (median; 32 of 33 had it)

It was 22.4 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 11 days, against 2 days.

None of its 33 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 1 of 33, 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 6.0 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

1.4 mmfirst rain
28 Aug9 days after it ended
54km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 19 Aug, and on 28 Aug 1.4 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 32 of 33, with a median of 6.0 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 · 2 Aug 2025
After · 26 Aug 2025

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 13 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 76 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 40: 2.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak76 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM10115 µg/m³
Optical depth1.19
7 Aug9 Aug11 Aug13 Aug15 Aug
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 · 613Every 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 Villablino fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 9 August 2025 to 19 August 2025 (11 days). The perimeter dates it from 9 August 2025 to 12 August 2025.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 4,285 hectares (42.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Villablino (1,764 ha, 7.7 %); Cangas del Narcea (1,723 ha, 2.1 %); Somiedo (799 ha, 2.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire came within 6.8 km of the centre of Somiedo, the closest of the areas it touched. 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 27.8 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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.
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: 33. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 191 ha; 3 % went past 1,000 ha. None of its 33 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 1 of 33, 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 6.0 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.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 9 August 2025 to 12 August 2025. 613 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Checked against news and agencies: 4 confirmed sources.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

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.