Aboadela, Sanche e Várzea fire, April 2017 Aboadela, Sanche e Várzea, Campeã, Ansiães
The fire started on 16 April 2017 in Aboadela, Sanche e Várzea, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 374 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 16 April 2017 at 07:25 and declared extinguished on 16 April 2017.
Number 108 in Portugal in 2017, of 211.
- Burnt area
- 374ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 4days
- 16 Apr 2017 – 19 Apr 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- freguesias
- Started on
- 16 Apr
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 5
- in a single hotspot: 170 MW
- Danger at start
- 9
- Low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 190MW
- 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 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 24 Apr.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
204 ha reached on 16 Apr6.7 %
-
Campeã 1,226 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the centre118 ha reached on 19 Apr4.9 %
-
Ansiães 516 inhabitants · 2.9 km from the centre53 ha2.0 %
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 land49 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland48 %
- Mixed forest2.2 %
- Coniferous forest1.4 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- LIC Alvão / Marão PTCON0003
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 2015Inside the perimeter there were about 0.21 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, 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 2 fires according to ICNF
According to ICNF, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 389 ha (the satellite measured 374 ha).
ICNF 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 Amarante Aboadela 16 April 2017 · 07:25 200 ha · extinguished on 16 April 2017 · cause: unknown
- 2 Vila Real Campeã 19 April 2017 · 14:25 189 ha · extinguished on 20 April 2017 · cause: negligence
Total according to ICNF: 389 ha, 104 % of the 374 ha in the satellite perimeter.
ICNF (Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas). This is the agency’s operational record: its figures may be revised when the year’s statistics are closed.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Apr | 18.3 °C | 37 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 17 Apr | 17.9 °C | 43 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 18 Apr | 13.7 °C | 60 % | 32 km/h | 1.8 mm | Very low 2 |
| 19 Apr | 18.2 °C | 18 % | 61 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 20 Apr after | 17.8 °C | 22 % | 61 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 21 Apr after | 17.7 °C | 25 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 22 Apr after | 18.1 °C | 31 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 23 Apr after | 18.1 °C | 40 % | 24 km/h | 0.6 mm | Low 9 |
| 24 Apr after | 16.6 °C | 55 % | 28 km/h | 1.8 mm | Very low 3 |
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.
Detections table · 5Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,087 haVila Real Vila Marim3 August 2025 · 13 days · 12 km away
- 6,845 haUnião das Freguesias de Campelo e Ovil e Loivos do MonteSeptember 2024 · 3 days · 13 km away
- 5,850 haVila Real Adoufe e Vilarinho de Samardã21 August 2022 · 6 days · 20 km away
- 6,118 haVila Pouca de Aguiar Telões17 September 2024 · 3 days · 25 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Aboadela, Sanche e Várzea fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 16 April 2017 and 19 April 2017: 4 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 16 April 2017 at 07:25 and declared extinguished on 16 April 2017.
- 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: Aboadela, Sanche e Várzea (204 ha, 6.7 %); Campeã (118 ha, 4.9 %); Ansiães (53 ha, 2.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire came within 0.8 km of the centre of Campeã, 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 18.3 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 12, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Portugal (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 ›
- ICNF · Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas ↗
- ANEPC · Proteção Civil ↗
- Fogos.pt (ocorrências em tempo real) ↗
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. 5 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 389 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 2015, 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 (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.