Cantanhede fire, 12 August 2017 São Martinho de Árvore e Lamarosa, Ançã, Portunhos e Outil
The fire started on 12 August 2017 in Ançã, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 2,169 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 6 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 11 August 2017 at 14:50 and declared extinguished on 13 August 2017.
Number 33 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 2,169ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 12 Aug 2017 – 13 Aug 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 6
- freguesias
- Started on
- 12 Aug
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 74
- in a single hotspot: 222 MW
- Danger at start
- 50
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 1.8GW
- 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 36 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Lisbon boundary: geoBoundaries · geoBoundaries, DG Territory (CC0 1.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
São Martinho de Árvore e Lamarosa 2,716 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the centre927 ha reached on 12 Aug45 %
-
632 ha reached on 12 Aug35 %
-
Portunhos e Outil 1,850 inhabitants · fire reached the centre404 ha reached on 12 Aug13 %
-
São João do Campo 1,825 inhabitants · 0.9 km from the centre104 ha reached on 12 Aug13 %
-
São Silvestre 2,794 inhabitants · 1.1 km from the centre101 ha reached on 12 Aug9.9 %
-
Tentúgal 2,046 inhabitants · 1.4 km from the centre2 ha reached on 12 Aug0.1 %
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
- Coniferous forest44 %
- Mixed forest25 %
- Agricultural areas23 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland6.0 %
- Artificial surfaces1.4 %
- Broadleaved forest0.9 %
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 20 hectares of built-up land and about 750 residents (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
Official record
According to ICNF, this fire started on 11 August 2017 and burned 2,050 ha (the satellite measured 2,169 ha).
- Cantanhede Portunhos 11 August 2017 · 14:50 2,050 ha · extinguished on 13 August 2017 · cause: arson
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Aug | 34.0 °C | 17 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 13 Aug | 33.0 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 14 Aug after | 25.6 °C | 57 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 15 Aug after | 25.5 °C | 49 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 16 Aug after | 27.1 °C | 39 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 17 Aug after | 29.9 °C | 41 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 18 Aug after | 27.7 °C | 51 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 19 Aug after | 30.9 °C | 42 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 20 Aug after | 38.2 °C | 23 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 21 Aug after | 33.7 °C | 29 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 22 Aug after | 29.5 °C | 44 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 23 Aug after | 27.2 °C | 51 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 13 August 2017 the air beside the fire reached 31 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 24: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 74Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 24,183 haQuiaiosOctober 2017 · 17 days · 20 km away
- 3,717 haAnadia Vila Nova de MonsarrosAugust 2016 · 3 days · 21 km away
- 1,894 haCoimbra União das Freguesias de Semide e Rio Vide e CeiraAugust 2017 · 3 days · 22 km away
- 3,388 haLousã União das Freguesias de Lousã e VilarinhoAugust 2025 · 5 days · 36 km away
- 7,926 haÁgueda Préstimo e Macieira de AlcobaAugust 2016 · 6 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Cantanhede fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 12 August 2017 to 13 August 2017 (2 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 August 2017 to 13 August 2017. According to ICNF, it was detected on 11 August 2017 at 14:50 and declared extinguished on 13 August 2017.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 2,169 hectares (21.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 6 municipalities: São Martinho de Árvore e Lamarosa (927 ha, 45 %); Ançã (632 ha, 35 %); Portunhos e Outil (404 ha, 13 %); São João do Campo (104 ha, 13 %); São Silvestre (101 ha, 9.9 %); Tentúgal (2 ha, 0.1 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire reached the centre of Portunhos e Outil: the point marking it was inside the burnt area or less than 500 metres from it. That does not mean houses burned.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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 · 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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 13 August 2017 to 13 August 2017. 74 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 2,050 official ha against 2,169 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.