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Castelo Branco fire, August 2017 Castelo Novo, São Vicente da Beira, Souto da Casa

Out · last detection 16 Aug 2017, 13:22 UTC

The fire started on 13 August 2017 in Castelo Novo, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 6,531 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 10 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 13 August 2017 at 01:27 and declared extinguished on 17 August 2017.

Number 14 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.

Burnt area
6,531ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
13 Aug 2017 – 16 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
10
freguesias
Started on
13 Aug
2017
Heat detections
321
in a single hotspot: 476 MW
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
9.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Aug 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Aug16 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

13141516

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
61km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

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.

What happened to each town

  1. Castelo Novo 353 inhabitants · 0.7 km from the town
    1,616 ha reached on 14 Aug
    39 %
  2. São Vicente da Beira 961 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the town
    1,492 ha reached on 13 Aug
    15 %
  3. Souto da Casa 746 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the town
    1,359 ha reached on 14 Aug
    46 %
  4. Louriçal do Campo 557 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the town where it started
    595 ha reached on 13 Aug
    27 %
  5. Alpedrinha
    456 ha reached on 15 Aug
    28 %
  6. Alcongosta 416 inhabitants · 0.2 km from the town
    426 ha reached on 15 Aug
    58 %
  7. Vale de Prazeres e Mata da Rainha 1,197 inhabitants · 5.7 km from the town
    320 ha reached on 15 Aug
    4.4 %
  8. Soalheira 852 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the town
    250 ha
    20 %
  9. União do Grande Fundão 12,641 inhabitants · 3.6 km from the town
    14 ha reached on 15 Aug
    0.2 %
  10. Alcaide 583 inhabitants · 2.0 km from the town
    11 ha
    0.6 %

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 woodland42 %
  • Other natural land37 %
  • Agricultural areas15 %
  • Coniferous forest4.0 %
  • Mixed forest1.3 %
  • Broadleaved forest0.9 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 56 %

Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 13 August 2017 and burned 6,159 ha (the satellite measured 6,531 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
Incêndio de Louriçal do Campo · Incêndio da Gardunha · Incêndio de Castelo Branco/Fundão
Official area reported: 7,200 ha (the satellite measured 6,531 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)
13 Aug 33.4 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
14 Aug 33.8 °C 17 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 Aug 28.6 °C 17 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
16 Aug 30.8 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Aug after 33.4 °C 23 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Aug after 32.4 °C 20 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Aug after 33.3 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
20 Aug after 35.8 °C 18 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
21 Aug after 33.7 °C 19 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 Aug after 33.8 °C 19 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Aug after 33.9 °C 20 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Aug after 28.3 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Aug after 29.8 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Aug after 31.3 °C 22 % 70 km/h 0.9 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Aug 2017
After · 23 Aug 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 14 August 2017 the air beside the fire reached 46 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 28: 1.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak46 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1054 µg/m³
111213141516171819
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 · 321Every 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 Castelo Branco fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 13 August 2017 and 16 August 2017: 4 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 13 August 2017 at 01:27 and declared extinguished on 17 August 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 6,531 hectares (65.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 10 municipalities: Castelo Novo (1,616 ha, 39 %); São Vicente da Beira (1,492 ha, 15 %); Souto da Casa (1,359 ha, 46 %); Louriçal do Campo (595 ha, 27 %); Alpedrinha (456 ha, 28 %); Alcongosta (426 ha, 58 %); Vale de Prazeres e Mata da Rainha (320 ha, 4.4 %); Soalheira (250 ha, 20 %); União do Grande Fundão (14 ha, 0.2 %); Alcaide (11 ha, 0.6 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.2 km of Alcongosta. 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 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, class Extreme.
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.