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Águeda fire, August 2016 União das Freguesias de Belazaima do Chão, Castanheira do Vouga e Agadão, Préstimo e Macieira de Alcoba, União das Freguesias de Águeda e Borralha

Out · last detection 12 Aug 2016, 13:41 UTC

The fire started on 8 August 2016 in União das Freguesias de Belazaima do Chão, Castanheira do Vouga e Agadão, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 7,926 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 6 municipalities. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 8 August 2016 at 04:09 and declared extinguished on 16 August 2016.

Number 3 in Portugal in 2016, of 179.

Burnt area
7,926ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
5days
8 Aug 2016 – 12 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
6
freguesias
Started on
8 Aug
2016
Heat detections
850
in a single hotspot: 280 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
17.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Aug12 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

89101112

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
59km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 31 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 19 Aug.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. União das Freguesias de Belazaima do Chão, Castanheira do Vouga e Agadão 639 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    3,587 ha reached on 9 Aug
    41 %
  2. Préstimo e Macieira de Alcoba 703 inhabitants · 0.3 km from the town where it started
    1,857 ha reached on 8 Aug
    44 %
  3. União das Freguesias de Águeda e Borralha 11,346 inhabitants · 2.2 km from the town
    1,200 ha reached on 8 Aug
    33 %
  4. Valongo do Vouga 4,637 inhabitants · 2.0 km from the town
    1,167 ha reached on 8 Aug
    27 %
  5. Aguada de Cima 3,894 inhabitants · 3.0 km from the town
    64 ha reached on 11 Aug
    2.2 %
  6. São João do Monte e Mosteirinho 780 inhabitants · 4.5 km from the town
    60 ha reached on 11 Aug
    0.9 %

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

  • Scrub and transitional woodland90 %
  • Agricultural areas6.3 %
  • Mixed forest2.0 %
  • Broadleaved forest1.4 %
  • Artificial surfaces0.8 %

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

Official record

According to ICNF, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 7,186 ha (the satellite measured 7,926 ha).

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.

Checked against the press

Checked on 30 September 2026

We checked this page against 2 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Official area reported: 7,168 ha (the satellite measured 7,926 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)
8 Aug 36.6 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Aug 32.2 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
10 Aug 31.8 °C 24 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Aug 32.8 °C 24 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Aug 33.8 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
13 Aug after 33.2 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Aug after 29.2 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Aug after 26.8 °C 42 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 Aug after 24.5 °C 44 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
17 Aug after 23.7 °C 65 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
18 Aug after 26.6 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
19 Aug after 23.9 °C 70 % 35 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 11

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Aug 2016
After · 19 Aug 2016

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 9 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 204 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 88: 5.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak204 µg/m³
Days over the guideline9 days
PM10237 µg/m³
6789101112131415
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 · 850Every 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 Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Águeda fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 8 August 2016 and 12 August 2016: 5 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 8 August 2016 at 04:09 and declared extinguished on 16 August 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 7,926 hectares (79.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 6 municipalities: União das Freguesias de Belazaima do Chão, Castanheira do Vouga e Agadão (3,587 ha, 41 %); Préstimo e Macieira de Alcoba (1,857 ha, 44 %); União das Freguesias de Águeda e Borralha (1,200 ha, 33 %); Valongo do Vouga (1,167 ha, 27 %); Aguada de Cima (64 ha, 2.2 %); São João do Monte e Mosteirinho (60 ha, 0.9 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of União das Freguesias de Belazaima do Chão, Castanheira do Vouga e Agadão. 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 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
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

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.

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.