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ES · Spain · –

Villacarriedo fire, February 2026 Selaya, Villacarriedo, San Roque de Riomiera

Out · last detection 26 Feb 2026, 13:04 UTC

The fire started on 24 February 2026 in Villacarriedo, Spain, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 345 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 27th largest in Cantabria since 2016 (of 179 with a page). Number 69 in Spain in 2026, of 196.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Soba · 2023Corvera de Toranzo · 2019Villacarriedo · 2021Villacarriedo · 2019

Burnt area
345ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
≈ 3days
24 Feb 2026 – 26 Feb 2026
Municipalities hit
4
municipalities
Started on
24 Feb
2026
Heat detections
22
in a single hotspot: 31 MW
Danger at start
4
Very low · FWI index
Average daily power
44MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Feb26 Feb
26 Feb 2026

How it evolved, day by day

25 Feb 2026 · 27 MW · 13 26 Feb 2026 · 60 MW · 9
25 Feb 26 Feb

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

The weather it burned in

18°high
52km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.1 mm on 27 Feb.

This area had burned before

94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1 ha in 2018, 218 ha in 2019, 250 ha in 2021, 14 ha in 2022, 106 ha in 2023, 75 ha in 2024, 31 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 323 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Selaya 1,868 inhabitants · 3.3 km from the centre
    134 ha reached on 25 Feb
    3.4 %
  2. Villacarriedo 1,670 inhabitants · 3.0 km from the centre where it started
    130 ha reached on 25 Feb
    2.6 %
  3. San Roque de Riomiera 333 inhabitants · 3.5 km from the centre
    44 ha reached on 25 Feb
    1.2 %
  4. Saro 480 inhabitants · 4.6 km from the centre
    37 ha reached on 25 Feb
    2.0 %

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 land86 %
  • Agricultural areas14 %

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 area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (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

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)

Started with Strong wind: 26 % of the area in Spain

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
24 Feb 18.5 °C 28 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
25 Feb 18.0 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
26 Feb 17.0 °C 25 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
27 Feb after 11.0 °C 67 % 36 km/h 3.1 mm Very low 0

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 4.5, a minimum humidity of 28% and 4 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 30.

FWI at the start 4.5
Minimum humidity 28 %
Days without rain 4
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Soba fire, March 2023
519 ha 2 days FWI 5.1 Min. humidity 28 % 8 km away, in 2023

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.6 mm on 31 Mar.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

2 days
median duration
190 ha
median area
0 %
went past 1,000 ha
5.8 mm
rain at the end (median; 28 of 30 had it)

It was 1.8 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 3 days, against 2 days.

Only 4 of its 30 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 30, 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 5.8 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

3.1 mmfirst rain
27 Febthe day after it ended
52km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 26 Feb, and on 27 Feb 3.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 28 of 30, with a median of 5.8 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 · 17 Feb 2026
After · 5 Mar 2026

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 27 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 50 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 30: 2.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak50 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1079 µg/m³
Optical depth0.26
22 Feb24 Feb26 Feb
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 · 22Every 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 Villacarriedo fire last?
The official perimeter only gives the start date (24 February 2026). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 26 February 2026 (3 days from 24 February 2026), the last day with detections before more than 10 days in a row without any, so it is approximate.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 345 hectares (3.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Selaya (134 ha, 3.4 %); Villacarriedo (130 ha, 2.6 %); San Roque de Riomiera (44 ha, 1.2 %); Saro (37 ha, 2.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Villacarriedo and came within 3.0 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 18.5 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 5, class Very 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: 30. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 190 ha; 0 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 4 of its 30 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 30, 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 5.8 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.
  • The official perimeter has no end date: the end is the last day with VIIRS detections inside the perimeter before a gap of more than 10 days (150 days at most), so it is approximate. 22 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • 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.