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Cambas fire, August 2017 Sarzedas, Sarnadas de São Simão, Orvalho

Out · last detection 27 Aug 2017, 13:16 UTC

The fire started on 23 August 2017 in Cambas, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 8,478 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 7 municipalities.

Number 11 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.

Burnt area
8,478ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
5days
23 Aug 2017 – 27 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
7
freguesias
Started on
23 Aug
2017
Heat detections
502
in a single hotspot: 416 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
17.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Aug 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Aug27 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

23242527

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
48km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.2 mm on 28 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. Sarzedas 1,017 inhabitants · 5.1 km from the town
    1,850 ha reached on 25 Aug
    11 %
  2. Sarnadas de São Simão 167 inhabitants · 1.1 km from the town
    1,754 ha reached on 24 Aug
    56 %
  3. Orvalho 638 inhabitants · 0.2 km from the town
    1,608 ha reached on 24 Aug
    48 %
  4. Estreito-Vilar Barroco 834 inhabitants · 3.3 km from the town
    1,314 ha reached on 24 Aug
    14 %
  5. Almaceda 511 inhabitants · 2.5 km from the town
    1,105 ha reached on 25 Aug
    15 %
  6. Cambas 254 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town where it started
    664 ha reached on 23 Aug
    14 %
  7. Janeiro de Cima e Bogas de Baixo 425 inhabitants · 2.2 km from the town
    196 ha reached on 24 Aug
    4.2 %

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 woodland47 %
  • Coniferous forest46 %
  • Broadleaved forest2.9 %
  • Agricultural areas2.8 %
  • Other natural land0.9 %

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 5,376 ha (the satellite measured 8,478 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

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
Incêndio de Oleiros · IF de Cambas (Oleiros) · Fogos de Oleiros
According to the sources, several fires that ended up merging:
  • Selada das Pedras 23 August 2017 4,361 ha
  • Oleiros (segundo incendio 24 August 2017 1,015 ha
Declared extinguished: 27 August 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)
23 Aug 31.9 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Aug 27.8 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
25 Aug 29.0 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
26 Aug 30.3 °C 24 % 48 km/h 1.3 mm High 36
27 Aug 25.9 °C 36 % 37 km/h 2.4 mm Moderate 12
28 Aug after 21.7 °C 52 % 28 km/h 2.2 mm Low 5

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Aug 2017
After · 3 Sept 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.

Detections table · 502Every 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 Cambas fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 23 August 2017 and 27 August 2017: 5 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 8,478 hectares (84.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 7 municipalities: Sarzedas (1,850 ha, 11 %); Sarnadas de São Simão (1,754 ha, 56 %); Orvalho (1,608 ha, 48 %); Estreito-Vilar Barroco (1,314 ha, 14 %); Almaceda (1,105 ha, 15 %); Cambas (664 ha, 14 %); Janeiro de Cima e Bogas de Baixo (196 ha, 4.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Cambas. 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 31.9 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.