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Volos fire, July 2023 Δημοτική Ενότητα Βόλου · Volos, Rigas Feraios

Out · last detection 28 Jul 2023, 23:35 UTC

The fire started on 26 July 2023 in Volos, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 8,634 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Thessaly since 2016 (of 18 with a page). Number 4 in Greece in 2023, of 34.

The power measured by the satellite is low (9.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
8,634ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
26 Jul 2023 – 29 Jul 2023
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
26 Jul
2023
Heat detections
25
in a single hotspot: 10 MW
Danger at start
70
Very extreme · FWI index
Energy released
50MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Jul 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Jul29 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

2728

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

The weather it burned in

42°high
66km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.3 mm on 1 Aug.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 92 ha in 2021.

What happened to each town

  1. Volos Δημοτική Ενότητα Βόλου 71,516 inhabitants · 6.3 km from the town where it started
    4,685 ha reached on 27 Jul
    11 %
  2. Rigas Feraios Ρήγα Φεραίου
    3,956 ha reached on 27 Jul
    6.7 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

What burned

  • Agricultural areas52 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub35 %
  • Other natural land11 %
  • Artificial surfaces2.4 %

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
Φωτιά στο Βελεστίνο · Φωτιά στον Βόλο · Fire in Velestino
Official area reported: 8,724 ha (the satellite measured 8,634 ha)

Sources

Official figures are measured differently from satellite ones and sometimes cover only part of the fire.

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)
26 Jul 41.6 °C 12 % 66 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
27 Jul 29.7 °C 31 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Jul 28.8 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Jul 30.7 °C 40 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
30 Jul after 32.2 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
31 Jul after 31.3 °C 35 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Aug after 29.3 °C 48 % 33 km/h 3.3 mm Low 8

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Jul 2023
After · 5 Aug 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 26 July 2023 the air beside the fire reached 20 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak20 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1064 µg/m³
Optical depth0.60
24252627282930311
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 · 25Every 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 Greece ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Volos fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 26 July 2023 and 29 July 2023: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 8,634 hectares (86.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Volos (4,685 ha, 11 %); Rigas Feraios (3,956 ha, 6.7 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 6.3 km of Volos. 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 41.6 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 66 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 70, class Very extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Greece (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 · 199

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
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 · 199.

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 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). 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.