How long did the Boticas fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 28 March 2026 and 28 March 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 28 March 2026 at 17:53 and declared extinguished on 28 March 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 145 hectares (1.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Vilar de Perdizes e Meixide (112 ha, 3.0 %); Ardãos e Bobadela (33 ha, 0.9 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.2 km of Vilar de Perdizes e Meixide. 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 16.4 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 8, class Low.

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.

PT · Portugal · 2026-03-28 → 2026-03-28

Boticas fire, March 2026 Vilar de Perdizes e Meixide, Ardãos e Bobadela

Out · last detection 29 Mar 2026, 13:23 UTC

The fire started on 28 March 2026 in Vilar de Perdizes e Meixide, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 145 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 28 March 2026 at 17:53 and declared extinguished on 28 March 2026.

It is the 39th largest in Montalegre since 2016 (of 56 with a page). Number 59 in Portugal in 2026, of 78.

The power measured by the satellite is low (13.8 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: 145ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 28 Mar 2026 – 28 Mar 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; freguesias
Started on: 28 Mar; 2026
Heat detections: 6; in a single hotspot: 14 MW
Danger at start: 8; Low · FWI index
Energy released: 64MW; sum of detected power

Play back 29 Mar 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Mar28 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

2829

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

The weather it burned in

16°high

36km/h · peak gust

35%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 10.4 mm on 7 Apr.

This area had burned before

13% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2 ha in 2020, 16 ha in 2022.

2 ha Montalegre fire, October 2020 144 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Vilar de Perdizes e Meixide 463 inhabitants · 3.2 km from the town where it started

112 ha reached on 28 Mar

3.0 %
Ardãos e Bobadela 463 inhabitants · 3.7 km from the town

33 ha

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

Other natural land94 %
Agricultural areas3.4 %
Scrub and transitional woodland2.7 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 28 March 2026 and burned 139 ha (the satellite measured 145 ha).

Boticas Ardãos 28 March 2026 · 17:53 139 ha · extinguished on 28 March 2026 · cause: negligence

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)
28 Mar	16.4 °C	35 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
29 Mar after	13.8 °C	33 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
30 Mar after	17.2 °C	40 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
31 Mar after	20.0 °C	36 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
1 Apr after	18.4 °C	35 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
2 Apr after	16.9 °C	37 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
3 Apr after	19.3 °C	29 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 9
4 Apr after	21.2 °C	32 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 11
5 Apr after	22.7 °C	26 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
6 Apr after	23.9 °C	15 %	51 km/h	0.5 mm	High 22
7 Apr after	15.8 °C	59 %	75 km/h	10.4 mm	Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 21 Mar 2026

After · 4 Apr 2026

Before After

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 30 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 11 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak11 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1014 µg/m³

Optical depth0.19

262728293031

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 · 6Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Boticas fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 28 March 2026 and 28 March 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 28 March 2026 at 17:53 and declared extinguished on 28 March 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 145 hectares (1.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Vilar de Perdizes e Meixide (112 ha, 3.0 %); Ardãos e Bobadela (33 ha, 0.9 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.2 km of Vilar de Perdizes e Meixide. 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 16.4 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 8, class Low.
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

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned