Castro Daire fire, 9 October 2017 Cabril, Parada de Ester e Ester, São Martinho das Moitas e Covas do Rio
The fire started on 9 October 2017 in Cabril, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 421 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, the largest of the 3 recorded fires was detected on 9 October 2017 at 15:08 and declared extinguished on 12 October 2017.
It is the 9th largest in Castro Daire since 2016 (of 15 with a page). Number 99 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.
The power measured by the satellite is low (10.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 421ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 5days
- 9 Oct 2017 – 13 Oct 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- freguesias
- Started on
- 9 Oct
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 27
- in a single hotspot: 11 MW
- Danger at start
- 31
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 60MW
- 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 39 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 23.4 mm on 17 Oct.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
330 ha reached on 10 Oct15 %
-
Parada de Ester e Ester 744 inhabitants · 4.1 km from the centre68 ha reached on 10 Oct1.7 %
-
São Martinho das Moitas e Covas do Rio 258 inhabitants · 5.8 km from the centre24 ha reached on 10 Oct0.4 %
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
- Scrub and transitional woodland79 %
- Agricultural areas9.6 %
- Mixed forest6.3 %
- Broadleaved forest5.2 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 37 %
- LIC Rio Paiva PTCON0059
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.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2015Inside the perimeter there were about 0.11 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (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
Complex of 3 fires according to ICNF
According to ICNF, 3 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 451 ha (the satellite measured 421 ha).
ICNF records each fire that started at a different time or place separately; the satellite sees a single burned area, so this page groups them together. The numbers on the map show where each one started.
- 1 Castro Daire Parada de Ester 5 October 2017 · 00:26 7 ha · extinguished on 5 October 2017 · cause: arson
- 2 Castro Daire Cabril 9 October 2017 · 15:08 438 ha · extinguished on 12 October 2017 · cause: arson
- 3 Castro Daire Cabril 9 October 2017 · 15:13 6 ha · extinguished on 9 October 2017 · cause: rekindling
Total according to ICNF: 451 ha, 107 % of the 421 ha in the satellite perimeter.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Oct | 27.3 °C | 23 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 10 Oct | 27.2 °C | 22 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 11 Oct | 26.2 °C | 22 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 12 Oct | 28.6 °C | 27 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 13 Oct | 25.9 °C | 39 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 14 Oct after | 29.6 °C | 29 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 15 Oct after | 32.3 °C | 22 % | 64 km/h | 0.7 mm | Very high 39 |
| 16 Oct after | 24.0 °C | 38 % | 42 km/h | 0.9 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 17 Oct after | 19.7 °C | 49 % | 45 km/h | 23.4 mm | Very low 1 |
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 9 October 2017 the air beside the fire reached 51 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 36: 2.4 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 · 27Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 35,523 haCastro Daire União das Freguesias de Picão e ErmidaSeptember 2024 · 10 days · 11 km away
- 30,331 haArouca Santa EuláliaAugust 2016 · 9 days · 19 km away
- 8,253 haChaveOctober 2017 · 5 days · 19 km away
- 19,317 haVouzela AlcofraOctober 2017 · 4 days · 31 km away
- 23,318 haPessegueiro do VougaSeptember 2024 · 7 days · 37 km away
- 78,447 haTrancoso Trancoso (São Pedro e Santa Maria) e Souto MaiorAugust 2025 · 11 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Castro Daire fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 9 October 2017 to 13 October 2017 (5 days). The perimeter dates it from 9 October 2017 to 11 October 2017. According to ICNF, the largest of the 3 recorded fires was detected on 9 October 2017 at 15:08 and declared extinguished on 12 October 2017.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 421 hectares (4.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Cabril (330 ha, 15 %); Parada de Ester e Ester (68 ha, 1.7 %); São Martinho das Moitas e Covas do Rio (24 ha, 0.4 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Cabril and came within 2.1 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 27.3 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class 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 9 October 2017 to 11 October 2017. 27 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 451 official ha against 421 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.