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Spain · major fire event · burning since 29 July
The San Cipriano del Condado fire: the N-621 and the Condado villages
13distinct satellite heat locations near Valdefresno
What happened
The heat flagged north east of León was the San Cipriano del Condado fire, declared by the Junta de Castilla y León at 14:38 on 29 July in the municipality of Vegas del Condado. It reached the second of the Junta's severity levels within about an hour, ran between San Cipriano and Represa del Condado into Castro del Condado. The Junta declared it stabilised on the evening of 30 July, dropped it to level 0 on 31 July and logged it as controlled at 21:28 on 2 August.
What it means if you're travelling
Three hundred and twelve people were evacuated from Santa María del Condado, the Montesol development, Castro del Condado and Barrillos de Curueño, and were home again on 30 July. The N-621 was closed on 29 July while the fire ran beside it, and it is open again: the Dirección General de Tráfico live incident list on the morning of 4 August carried no fire closure anywhere on that road. León city itself, the Camino stage through it and the A-66 and A-231 were not affected.
The San Cipriano del Condado fire: what burned north-east of León, and what it means for the N-621
What burned north-east of León, and when?
The heat signature picked up east and north-east of León city corresponds to a real and well documented fire. The Junta de Castilla y León recorded it as starting at 14:38 on Wednesday 29 July in the municipality of Vegas del Condado, in the Condado district on the río Porma, roughly twenty kilometres from the city.
Spanish coverage names it two ways. The Junta's Inforcyl system and most agency copy call it the San Cipriano del Condado fire, after the village nearest the point of origin. Diario de León and Leonoticias also refer to it as the Vegas del Condado fire, after the municipality. They are the same incident, not two.
The Junta first classified it at level 1 of the Índice de Gravedad Potencial, the scale Castilla y León uses to rank a fire's threat, on the basis that it would take more than twelve hours to stabilise. Within about an hour the regional government raised it to level 2, the point at which a fire is judged to threaten people and property rather than only forest. Two things drove that decision: villages had to be emptied, and the N-621 had to be closed.
The fire ran hard through Wednesday afternoon in high temperatures and wind, advancing on the ground between San Cipriano and Represa del Condado before reaching Castro del Condado. The Consejería de Medio Ambiente said it was stabilised at ten o'clock on Thursday night, 30 July. It was downgraded to level 0 on the morning of Friday 31 July, and the Junta's own daily fire report logs it as controlled at 21:28 on Sunday 2 August. Controlled is where it has stayed. The Consejería's own account of the summer, reported by ileon.eldiario.es on 6 August, still had it controlled rather than extinguished, and nothing published since has changed that.
Which villages were evacuated, and what was lost?
The Cecopi, the joint command centre the Junta convenes for a level 2 fire, ordered evacuations on the Wednesday afternoon and evening. Santa María del Condado was cleared, along with the Montesol housing development, Castro del Condado and Barrillos de Curueño. Three hundred and twelve people were moved out.
They were taken to reception points at Villaobispo de las Regueras, Villanueva del Condado and La Vecilla de Curueño. A Guardia Civil mobility unit was stationed at Barrios de Nuestra Señora to help residents.
Castro del Condado took the damage. The Junta's first balance recorded three buildings affected there. Leonoticias and Heraldo de León both reported four houses burnt, several of them on Calle Real, and residents told Leonoticias that two properties in the centre of the village could not be saved. The Consejería de Medio Ambiente's own account of the summer's fires, published through its Inforcyl system and reported by ileon.eldiario.es on 6 August, gives four private houses affected at Castro del Condado, which is the press figure rather than the early official one. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
After the Cecopi met at half past nine on Thursday morning the fire was lowered to level 1 and all 312 people were allowed home the same day. That is the part travellers should hold on to. The emergency phase was short and the villages were reoccupied within about a day. Nobody in the Condado has been moved from home since.
Is this the same as the fires in El Bierzo?
No, and the distinction matters if you are reading León province headlines and trying to work out whether your route is affected.
León had a bad week. On 30 July the province was carrying three separate fires at level 2 at once. Those are a different set of valleys, more than a hundred kilometres from the Condado, and they are covered separately on this site.
The San Cipriano fire is the eastern one. When the Junta said on 31 July that it was concentrating its effort on El Bierzo, that was possible precisely because the Condado fire had come down to level 0.
One other nearby incident is worth noting because it sits inside the same satellite search area. Diario de León reported a forest fire at Marialba de la Ribera, in the municipality of Villaturiel just south-east of León, on the afternoon of 27 July. It burnt scrub, pasture and trees, was handled by an environmental agent and a fire engine, and early indications reported by the paper pointed to a deliberate ignition. It was a small event and did not close roads or displace anyone.
Two more names from the middle of August are worth keeping straight, because both produced evacuation headlines that are not about this fire. On 13 August a fire at Caboalles de Abajo, in the municipality of Villablino in the Laciana valley, reached level 2 and about fifty people were taken out of the San Juan and Las Trapiechas neighbourhoods. That is roughly eighty kilometres north-west of the Condado, and they were home again the next morning. On the night of 15 August the village evacuated in Castilla y León was San Ciprián, in the municipality of Hermisende in Zamora, close to the Portuguese border, along with Castromil. That is about two hundred kilometres from San Cipriano del Condado, the names differ by one letter, and the two have nothing to do with each other.
Does this affect the Camino, the A-66 or the drive to the Picos?
León city itself was not affected. The fire was visible from parts of the city as a smoke column, which is the sort of thing that generates alarming photographs, but no part of the urban area was evacuated or closed.
Walkers on the Camino Francés are on the wrong side of the city to be involved. The stage out of León runs west through La Virgen del Camino towards Villar de Mazarife or Villadangos and then on to Astorga. The Condado is behind you and to the north-east. Nothing in the reporting from 29 July to 3 August indicates any closure or diversion on that route.
The road that was closed is the N-621, cut on the Wednesday as a safety measure while the fire crossed the ground beside it.
That one matters more than its number suggests. The N-621 is the old León to Santander road, running north-east out of the city past Villaobispo de las Regueras and across the Sobarriba, then on through Boñar, Cistierna and Riaño, over the San Glorio pass and down into Liébana and Potes. It is the classic driving approach from León to the eastern Picos de Europa. If you are heading for Riaño, Posada de Valdeón or Fuente Dé from the León side, that is your road.
The road is open. The Dirección General de Tráfico publishes a national board of roads cut by fire, and the edition generated at 09:35 on the morning of 16 August carries one closure in the whole of Castilla y León, the ZA-L-2698 between Hermisende and Castromil in Zamora. No road in León province is on it and the N-621 is not on it. Read that board for what it is. It lists roads shut by fire and nothing else, so it is not a check on roadworks: the DGT incident list on 11 August carried a rockfall narrowing at Crémenes that has been there since February, and works between Boca de Huérgano and Riaño were on that list in early August and had gone from it by then. Summer works on this road come and go, so it is worth a look at the live list on the morning you travel as well. The Riaño and Picos section, well to the north-east, was never in the fire's path.
What does the satellite marker actually tell you?
It tells you an area, not a point. Thermal detections are placed on a grid and then matched to the nearest named place, which is why this event first surfaced against Valdefresno, with Villaquilambre, Villaturiel and León city as neighbouring references. The fire that produced the burnt ground is the Condado one, a little further north-east than the first gazetteer match suggested.
That gap between the marker and the incident is normal and worth understanding. A detection tells you heat was present in a several kilometre box at a given overpass time. It does not tell you what was burning, how big it got, whether anyone was moved, or whether it is still going. Burnt area products confirmed scorched ground in the Vegas del Condado area, which is a useful cross check, but they arrive days later.
The middle of August has made that point again. Storms crossed the region on 15 August and lightning started more than a dozen fires in a single afternoon, four of them in León province, all of them logged at the lowest severity level and none of them reported to have moved anyone or shut a road. A day like that puts a scatter of fresh heat on the map that looks far more alarming than what is on the ground.
So treat a marker on this map as a prompt to look at the Junta's Inforcyl fire viewer and the 112 Castilla y León feed for the same place and date. Where those sources carry nothing, the honest reading is usually that something small burnt and was dealt with, not that something is being concealed.
What is left to deal with once the fire is out?
Controlled is not finished, and the Condado is a clear illustration of that. Leonoticias reported on 31 July, a full day after the Junta declared the fire stabilised, that residents of Castro del Condado were taking it in turns overnight to watch the damaged houses and put out flames still burning inside them. Official status describes the perimeter. It does not describe what is smouldering in a roof space.
For anyone passing through in the next few weeks, the visible aftermath will be blackened ground either side of the road between San Cipriano, Represa and Castro, machinery working on damaged buildings, and periodic smoke from mop-up that looks worse than it is. Village streets in Castro del Condado may be partly obstructed while demolition and clearance work goes on. This is a small farming district and its residents have just lost homes and a livestock building, so it is not a place to stop and photograph.
Castilla y León routinely restricts access to burnt woodland and to forest tracks after a fire of this severity, and those restrictions carry fines. If you were planning to walk or cycle the tracks in the Condado or up the Curueño valley towards La Vecilla, check locally before setting off. The region-wide alert that ran from midnight at the start of 11 August was extended on 13 August to the end of Friday 14 August, and it lapsed there. No further alert has been published since. Those rules applied to the whole of Castilla y León rather than to the burnt ground alone, and they come and go with the day's weather, so read the day's own declaration rather than last week's. The high fire danger period the region has been in since 12 June carries its own standing rules and does not lapse with an alert.
The least obvious risk arrives with the weather. Ground stripped of vegetation sheds water instead of absorbing it, so the first heavy summer storm over a burnt slope can put mud, gravel and stones onto minor roads below with very little warning. The storms that crossed the region on 15 August are the front edge of that season rather than the end of the fire one.
The live picture
Live NASA VIIRS + MODIS detections, refreshed daily. The situation moves: this map is current as of the timestamp in the banner above.
How this event has developed
: The Dirección General de Tráfico's national board of roads cut by fire, generated at 09:35 on Sunday 16 August, lists one closure in the whole of Castilla y León: the ZA-L-2698 between Hermisende and Castromil in Zamora, shut in both directions for the fire there. No road in León province appears on it, and the N-621 does not appear on it. The board covers fire closures only, so it is not a check on roadworks or on the long-standing rockfall narrowing at Crémenes.
: AEMET forecast a risk of storms in every province of Castilla y León for Saturday 15 August, and the storms delivered. More than a dozen forest fires were declared across the region during the day, most of them started by lightning, and the Junta declared Situación Operativa 1, the pre-emergency level it uses when several fires burn at once and crews have to be split between them. By half past seven that evening the Efe report carried by Infobae listed ten fires still going, all of them at level 0, and four were in León province: Los Montes de la Ermita, where there were two seats of fire, Vegas del Condado, Curueña and Turienzo de los Caballeros. The one that mattered was in Zamora. The fire at La Tejera, in the municipality of Hermisende near the Portuguese border, reached level 2 at 15:45 and 190 people were taken out of San Ciprián and Castromil to a shelter at Puebla de Sanabria. They were back in their houses about five hours later, after rain fell on the fire and the Junta lowered it to level 1.
: One of Saturday's lightning fires started near Vegas del Condado at about five in the afternoon, in the same municipality as the San Cipriano fire of 29 July. Leonoticias reported two units sent to it, against sixteen at the fire at Curueña in the municipality of Riello, which started at the same hour, and sixteen at Los Montes de la Ermita in Igüeña. The Condado fire was still logged at level 0 in the Efe list that evening, no village was reported evacuated and no road closure was reported.
: The Junta drops the Caboalles de Abajo fire to level 0 at 10:06, and the people taken out of the San Juan and Las Trapiechas neighbourhoods return to their houses. Eduardo Diego, the territorial delegate, said crews had secured about nine tenths of the perimeter with bulldozers and hand work overnight, and that the danger to houses and to farm buildings nearby had gone.
: The fifth fire alert of the summer runs to the end of Friday 14 August and lapses there. The resolution extending it named temperatures of 35 to 37 degrees, minimum humidity of 5 to 15 per cent and gusts to 40 kilometres an hour as the reason for the extra day. No further alert has been published since, so the bans that came with it, on outdoor fires, barbecues, fireworks and spark-throwing machinery, came off with it. That is not the same as the countryside going back to normal. Castilla y León has been in its declared period of high fire danger since 12 June, and the rules that come with that period stay in force whether an alert is running or not.
: The Junta extends its fifth fire alert of the summer by one day, so that it runs to the end of Friday 14 August rather than Thursday 13 August. Its stated reason is that the weather does not break: maximum temperatures of 35 to 37 degrees, minimum relative humidity between 5 and 15 per cent, and gusts of 35 to 40 kilometres an hour, over vegetation still carrying the summer's water stress. The bans are unchanged. No fire outdoors, including in recreational and camping areas and at built barbecue points, no fireworks or other pyrotechnics, and no spark-throwing machinery in woodland or within 400 metres of built-up areas. Permissions already granted stay suspended. Emergency work on infrastructure is excepted.
: The Consejo de Gobierno approves 1,864,500 euros of direct grants to 339 professional farmers, livestock keepers and beekeepers whose holdings were damaged in the municipalities on the official list, Vegas del Condado among them. The floor is the 5,500 euros already announced and the ceiling is 25,000 euros, set by the assessed damage to land, animals or hives. Diario de León reports it as part of a wider package of about 4.4 million euros, and says a beneficiary has ten days from publication in the Bocyl to accept or refuse, with silence counted as acceptance. The Junta's stated aim is to have the money paid before the end of August.
: Neither is in the Condado, and one of them is close enough to the N-621 to be worth knowing about. Leonoticias reported a fire starting at about half past four at Caboalles de Abajo, in the municipality of Villablino in the Laciana valley, which the Junta raised to level 2 at 18:18. About fifty people were taken out of the San Juan and Las Trapiechas neighbourhoods, the sports centre at Villablino was opened for them, and most chose to stay with friends or family. Homes in Caboalles de Abajo lost their electricity supply. Separately, a fire started at 16:23 between Olleros and Sahelices de Sabero, in the municipality of Sabero in the Cistierna area, and was controlled by 19:46. The municipal swimming pool there was cleared. No road closure was reported for either fire.
: The Junta drops the Cifuentes de Rueda fire, in the municipality of Gradefes, to level 0 of the Índice de Gravedad Potencial at 09:38. El Español's live account, updated that morning, reports no active flame at any point on the perimeter and says the fire stopped gaining ground at about half past eight the previous evening, after crews worked overnight burning out and securing the line. No village was evacuated and no road was closed. The cause is under investigation. That closes the incident that was the likeliest source of fresh heat detections east of the Condado.
: The Junta declares its fifth fire alert of the summer, covering the whole of Castilla y León from midnight at the start of Tuesday 11 August until 23:59 on Thursday 13 August. It expects the fire danger index to reach its extreme level on 11 and 13 August and to run between very high and extreme on 12 August, with maximum temperatures of 34 to 36 degrees, humidity below 10 per cent and wind reaching about 45 kilometres an hour. While the alert is in force, lighting a fire outdoors is banned, including in recreational areas and on campsites, along with barbecues in the open, fireworks and any other pyrotechnics, and the use of machinery that throws sparks, such as blowtorches, welders and angle grinders, in woodland and in the 400 metre strip around built-up areas. Permissions already granted are suspended. Emergency repairs to public infrastructure and to power, gas and telecoms networks are excepted if they are notified to the environment service. Leonoticias points out that the alert covers the day of the solar eclipse on 12 August, when a great many people are expected to be out in open country around León.
: A fire starts at 13:25 at Cifuentes de Rueda, in the municipality of Gradefes, the district immediately east of the Condado on the río Esla. The Junta raises it to level 1 of the Índice de Gravedad Potencial at 15:43, on the basis of the woodland it threatened rather than any risk to people. Info León reports a temperature around 31 degrees that afternoon, relative humidity at 21 per cent and a moderate wind. There are reports that the Junta is treating the fire as deliberately set. No village was reported evacuated and no road closure was reported. This is a separate incident from the San Cipriano fire, and it is the likeliest explanation for fresh heat detections in this corner of León.
: The fire is downgraded to level 0.
: After a Cecopi meeting at 09:30 the fire is lowered to level 1 and all 312 evacuated residents are allowed to return home.
: The Cecopi orders the evacuation of Santa María del Condado, the Montesol development, Castro del Condado and Barrillos de Curueño. In total 312 people are moved to Villaobispo de las Regueras, Villanueva del Condado and La Vecilla de Curueño. The N-621 is closed as a safety measure.
What travellers are asking
Is León city safe to visit right now?
Yes. The fire was in the Condado district roughly twenty kilometres north-east of the city and no part of León itself was evacuated or closed. The cathedral, the old town and the transport links were not affected. Smoke was visible from the city on 29 July, which is why alarming photographs circulated, but that is all it was.
Is the Camino Francés out of León affected?
No. The stage west from León through La Virgen del Camino towards Villadangos, Villar de Mazarife and Astorga runs in the opposite direction from the fire ground. Nothing in the reporting between 29 July and 3 August indicates a closure or diversion on that route. If you are walking, the practical risk on that stretch in August is heat rather than fire.
Can I still drive the N-621 from León to the Picos de Europa?
Yes. The N-621 was closed on 29 July while the fire ran beside it, and it is open again. The Dirección General de Tráfico's national board of roads cut by fire, generated at 09:35 on 16 August, shows one closure in the whole of Castilla y León, the ZA-L-2698 in Zamora, and nothing in León province at all. The DGT incident list on the morning of 11 August carried one entry for the whole of the N-621, a long-standing rockfall narrowing at Crémenes, and no fire closure. Check the live list again on the day you travel, because roadworks on this road change through the summer and the fire board does not cover them. The mountain section through Boñar, Riaño and the San Glorio pass, which is the part most drivers care about, was never in the fire's path.
Does the Castilla y León fire alert stop me going out into the countryside?
There is no alert running now. The one that began at midnight at the start of 11 August was extended on 13 August to the end of Friday 14 August and lapsed there, and no further alert has been published. While it ran it banned lighting fires outdoors, including in recreational areas and on campsites, barbecues in the open, fireworks and pyrotechnics, and the use of spark-throwing machinery such as blowtorches, welders and angle grinders in woodland and within 400 metres of built-up areas, and it suspended permissions already issued. An alert of that kind never closed the countryside to walkers or drivers. The region has been in its declared high fire danger period since 12 June and those standing rules continue, the Junta can declare a fresh alert at a day's notice when the forecast turns, and the burnt ground in the Condado can carry its own local restrictions on woodland and forest tracks.
Is this the same fire as the ones near Ponferrada and El Bierzo?
No. The San Cipriano del Condado fire is on the other side of the province, north-east of León city. León was carrying three level 2 fires at once on 30 July, which is why headlines from that week can be confusing.
I have seen San Ciprián in the news this weekend. Is that here?
No, and the two names are easy to confuse. The village evacuated on the night of 15 August was San Ciprián, in the municipality of Hermisende in Zamora, near the Portuguese border, along with Castromil. Their residents were taken to Puebla de Sanabria and were home again about five hours later. San Cipriano del Condado is in León province, about two hundred kilometres away, and nobody there has been moved since 30 July.
Were any homes destroyed?
Yes, in Castro del Condado. The Junta's first balance recorded three buildings affected, while Leonoticias and Heraldo de León reported four houses burnt, several on Calle Real, and residents said two in the centre of the village could not be saved. The Consejería de Medio Ambiente's own account of the summer's fires, published through Inforcyl and reported on 6 August, gives four private houses at Castro del Condado. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Why did this show up as a satellite detection before it had a name?
Thermal detections are placed on a grid and matched to the nearest named settlement, which put the first marker near Valdefresno rather than at Vegas del Condado. A detection confirms heat in an area at a moment in time. It does not identify the incident. Confirmation came from the Junta's Inforcyl fire system and León regional press over the following days.
Is there any help for the villages that were burned?
Yes. The Junta's resolution of 4 August widened the official list of localities affected by this summer's fires, and a correction published on 7 August settled it at 12 municipalities and 46 villages in León province. Vegas del Condado is on the final list, with Castro del Condado and Santa María del Monte del Condado named among its affected villages, and Santa Colomba de Curueño, which Barrillos de Curueño belongs to, is listed separately. Being on that list is what opens the regional recovery grants to residents, municipalities and businesses. Applications go through the Junta's electronic office, and the regional government publishes the aid lines and a helpline on its own site. Deliveries under the livestock fodder scheme reached Santa María del Condado and Castro del Condado on 11 August, and on 13 August the Consejo de Gobierno approved the direct grants to farmers, livestock keepers and beekeepers on the official list, which the Junta says it aims to pay before the end of August.
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