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Alijó fire, July 2017 União das Freguesias de Carlão e Amieiro, Alijó, Vila Chã

Out · last detection 18 Jul 2017, 02:43 UTC

The fire started on 16 July 2017 in União das Freguesias de Carlão e Amieiro, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 5,597 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 7 municipalities. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 16 July 2017 at 01:55 and declared extinguished on 19 July 2017.

It is the largest fire in Alijó since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 16 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.

Burnt area
5,597ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
3days
16 Jul 2017 – 18 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit
7
freguesias
Started on
16 Jul
2017
Heat detections
228
in a single hotspot: 350 MW
Danger at start
38
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
7.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Jul 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Jul18 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

161718

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
46km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 27 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. União das Freguesias de Carlão e Amieiro 627 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    1,764 ha reached on 17 Jul
    53 %
  2. Alijó 2,584 inhabitants · 1.8 km from the town
    1,107 ha reached on 16 Jul
    38 %
  3. Vila Chã 0.2 km from the town where it started
    931 ha reached on 16 Jul
    46 %
  4. Santa Eugénia 278 inhabitants · 0.2 km from the town
    726 ha reached on 17 Jul
    80 %
  5. Pegarinhos 394 inhabitants · 0.4 km from the town
    565 ha reached on 17 Jul
    30 %
  6. Candedo 1.0 km from the town
    427 ha reached on 17 Jul
    15 %
  7. Sanfins do Douro 1,256 inhabitants · 1.4 km from the town
    83 ha reached on 16 Jul
    4.8 %

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

  • Other natural land64 %
  • Agricultural areas29 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland3.8 %
  • Artificial surfaces2.5 %

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 4,583 ha (the satellite measured 5,597 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 4 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
Fogo de Alijó · Incêndio de Vila Chã · Incêndio de Alijó e Murça
Official area reported: 4,583 ha (the satellite measured 5,597 ha)
Declared extinguished: 19 July 2017

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)
16 Jul 33.9 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
17 Jul 32.7 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Jul 27.6 °C 29 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Jul after 22.6 °C 48 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
20 Jul after 25.2 °C 35 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
21 Jul after 24.1 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Jul after 23.8 °C 41 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
23 Jul after 29.3 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Jul after 26.9 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Jul after 28.8 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Jul after 31.1 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Jul after 30.4 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Jul after 30.1 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Jul 2017
After · 25 Jul 2017

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 17 July 2017 the air beside the fire reached 46 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 26: 1.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak46 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1047 µg/m³
1415161718192021
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 · 228Every 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 Alijó fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 16 July 2017 and 18 July 2017: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 16 July 2017 at 01:55 and declared extinguished on 19 July 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 5,597 hectares (56.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 7 municipalities: União das Freguesias de Carlão e Amieiro (1,764 ha, 53 %); Alijó (1,107 ha, 38 %); Vila Chã (931 ha, 46 %); Santa Eugénia (726 ha, 80 %); Pegarinhos (565 ha, 30 %); Candedo (427 ha, 15 %); Sanfins do Douro (83 ha, 4.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of União das Freguesias de Carlão e Amieiro. 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 33.9 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.