Villacarriedo fire, February 2019 Villacarriedo, Saro, San Roque de Riomiera
The fire started on 15 February 2019 in Villacarriedo, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 374 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 7 recorded fires was detected on 14 February 2019 at 20:50 and declared extinguished on 15 February 2019.
It is the 23th largest in Cantabria since 2016 (of 179 with a page). Number 23 in Spain in 2019, of 102.
The power measured by the satellite is low (13.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 374ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 3days
- 15 Feb 2019 – 17 Feb 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 15 Feb
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 14
- in a single hotspot: 13 MW
- Danger at start
- 4
- Very low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 31MW
- 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: 3.0 mm on 18 Feb.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
213 ha reached on 15 Feb4.2 %
-
Saro 480 inhabitants · 4.5 km from the centre159 ha reached on 17 Feb8.8 %
-
San Roque de Riomiera 333 inhabitants · 6.0 km from the centre2 ha reached on 15 Feb0.1 %
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 forest7.2 %
- Agricultural areas2.6 %
- Coniferous forest0.5 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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
Complex of 7 fires according to EGIF (MITECO)
According to EGIF (MITECO), 7 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 374 ha (the satellite measured 374 ha).
EGIF (MITECO) records each fire that started at a different time or place separately; the satellite sees a single burned area, so this page groups them together. The numbers on the map show where each one started.
- 1 San Roque de Riomiera Merilla 14 February 2019 · 10:47 26 ha · extinguished on 15 February 2019 · cause: arson
- 2 Villacarriedo Abionzo-San Bartolo 14 February 2019 · 20:50 194 ha · extinguished on 15 February 2019 · cause: arson
- 3 Saro Coterillo 15 February 2019 · 15:00 5 ha · extinguished on 15 February 2019 · cause: arson
- 4 Selaya Bustantegua 15 February 2019 · 19:00 22 ha · extinguished on 16 February 2019 · cause: arson
- 5 Selaya San Bartolo 15 February 2019 · 19:00 9 ha · extinguished on 15 February 2019 · cause: arson
- 6 Saro Coterillo 17 February 2019 103 ha · extinguished on 17 February 2019 · cause: arson
- 7 Villacarriedo Abionzo 17 February 2019 · 17:30 15 ha · extinguished on 18 February 2019 · cause: arson
Total according to EGIF (MITECO): 374 ha, 100 % of the 374 ha in the satellite perimeter.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Feb | 17.4 °C | 35 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 16 Feb | 18.4 °C | 32 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 17 Feb | 17.3 °C | 34 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 18 Feb after | 12.5 °C | 60 % | 31 km/h | 3.0 mm | Very low 0 |
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 15 February 2019 the air beside the fire reached 23 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 · 14Every 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 Villacarriedo fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 15 February 2019 and 17 February 2019: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to EGIF (MITECO), the largest of the 7 recorded fires was detected on 14 February 2019 at 20:50 and declared extinguished on 15 February 2019.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 374 hectares (3.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Villacarriedo (213 ha, 4.2 %); Saro (159 ha, 8.8 %); San Roque de Riomiera (2 ha, 0.1 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Villacarriedo and came within 2.3 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 18.4 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 6, 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.
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.
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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 14 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with EGIF (MITECO): 374 official ha against 374 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 2020, 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.