How long did the Castro Daire fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 September 2024 to 23 September 2024 (10 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 September 2024 to 23 September 2024. According to ICNF, the largest of the 4 recorded fires was detected on 16 September 2024 at 17:18 and declared extinguished on 20 September 2024.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 35,523 hectares (355.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 28 municipalities: São Martinho das Moitas e Covas do Rio (4,890 ha, 91 %); Mões (3,937 ha, 89 %); Sul (3,553 ha, 68 %); Parada de Ester e Ester (3,284 ha, 81 %); Moledo (2,991 ha, 64 %); Covelo de Paivó e Janarde (2,551 ha, 58 %); Alvarenga (2,068 ha, 53 %); Pindelo dos Milagres (1,886 ha, 79 %); Mamouros, Alva e Ribolhos (1,773 ha, 76 %); União das Freguesias de Reriz e Gafanhão (1,549 ha, 68 %); Cabril (1,136 ha, 51 %); Pepim (938 ha, 76 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire reached the centre of São Martinho das Moitas e Covas do Rio: 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 29.3 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.

PT · Portugal · 2024-09-14 → 2024-09-23

Castro Daire fire, September 2024 São Martinho das Moitas e Covas do Rio, Mões, Sul

Out · last detection 19 Sept 2024, 13:41 UTC

The fire started on 14 September 2024 in União das Freguesias de Picão e Ermida, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 35,523 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 28 municipalities. According to ICNF, the largest of the 4 recorded fires was detected on 16 September 2024 at 17:18 and declared extinguished on 20 September 2024.

It is the largest fire in Castro Daire since 2016 (of 16 with a page). The largest in Portugal in 2024, of 69.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Arouca · 2016 Castro Daire · 2017 Arouca · 2020 Castro Daire · 2017

Burnt area: 35,523ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 10days; 14 Sept 2024 – 23 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit: 28; freguesias
Started on: 14 Sept; 2024
Heat detections: 2,474; in a single hotspot: 384 MW
Danger at start: 28; High · FWI index
Average daily power: 11.2GW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Sept23 Sept

Play back 19 Sept 2024

How it evolved, day by day

14 Sept 16 Sept 17 Sept 18 Sept 19 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

29°high

56km/h · peak gust

14%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 14.0 mm on 24 Sept.

This area had burned before

35% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8,676 ha in 2016, 2,408 ha in 2017, 32 ha in 2018, 709 ha in 2019, 588 ha in 2020, 928 ha in 2021, 186 ha in 2022, 234 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 12,450 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 22% of the area of London (355 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

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 das Moitas e Covas do Rio 258 inhabitants · fire reached the centre

4,890 ha reached on 17 Sept

91 %
Mões 1,691 inhabitants · fire reached the centre

3,937 ha reached on 17 Sept

89 %
Sul 878 inhabitants · fire reached the centre

3,553 ha reached on 17 Sept

68 %
Parada de Ester e Ester 744 inhabitants · fire reached the centre

3,284 ha reached on 14 Sept

81 %
Moledo 1,049 inhabitants · fire reached the centre

2,991 ha reached on 17 Sept

64 %
Covelo de Paivó e Janarde 171 inhabitants · fire reached the centre

2,551 ha reached on 18 Sept

58 %
Alvarenga 1,057 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the centre

2,068 ha reached on 18 Sept

53 %
Pindelo dos Milagres 571 inhabitants · fire reached the centre

1,886 ha reached on 18 Sept

79 %
Mamouros, Alva e Ribolhos 1,188 inhabitants · fire reached the centre

1,773 ha reached on 17 Sept

76 %
União das Freguesias de Reriz e Gafanhão 724 inhabitants · fire reached the centre

1,549 ha reached on 17 Sept

68 %
Cabril fire reached the centre

1,136 ha reached on 18 Sept

51 %
Pepim 245 inhabitants · fire reached the centre

938 ha reached on 17 Sept

76 %
Pinheiro 669 inhabitants · fire reached the centre

924 ha reached on 17 Sept

47 %
Pendilhe 493 inhabitants · fire reached the centre

891 ha reached on 17 Sept

37 %
Figueiredo de Alva 721 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the centre

851 ha reached on 17 Sept

58 %
Pinho 654 inhabitants · fire reached the centre

666 ha reached on 18 Sept

49 %
Canelas e Espiunca 1,065 inhabitants · fire reached the centre

535 ha reached on 18 Sept

15 %
Vila Cova-à-Coelheira 940 inhabitants · 1.6 km from the centre

331 ha reached on 17 Sept

10 %
Vila Maior 872 inhabitants · 0.9 km from the centre

325 ha reached on 18 Sept

28 %
Alhões, Bustelo, Gralheira e Ramires 517 inhabitants · 2.7 km from the centre

190 ha reached on 18 Sept

5.1 %
Nespereira 1,695 inhabitants · 2.1 km from the centre

111 ha reached on 18 Sept

3.1 %
Castro Daire 4,557 inhabitants · 0.7 km from the centre

100 ha reached on 16 Sept

3.0 %
Carvalhais e Candal 1,413 inhabitants · 2.1 km from the centre

43 ha reached on 19 Sept

1.0 %
Moldes 1,126 inhabitants · 4.3 km from the centre

22 ha reached on 18 Sept

0.8 %
União das Freguesias de Picão e Ermida 415 inhabitants · 2.3 km from the centre where it started

12 ha

0.8 %
Calde 1,271 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the centre

2 ha

0.0 %
São Joaninho 1.5 km from the centre

1 ha reached on 18 Sept

0.1 %
Cota 796 inhabitants · 3.4 km from the centre

1 ha reached on 19 Sept

0.0 %

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 woodland34 %
Other natural land29 %
Coniferous forest18 %
Agricultural areas11 %
Broadleaved forest4.6 %
Mixed forest2.9 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 48 %

LIC Rio Paiva PTCON0059
LIC Serra de Montemuro PTCON0025
LIC Serras da Freita e Arada PTCON0047

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 2025

Built-up area118 ha

Residents≈ 2,900

Inside the perimeter there were about 118 hectares of built-up land and about 2,900 residents (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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

Complex of 4 fires according to ICNF

According to ICNF, 4 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 33,693 ha (the satellite measured 35,523 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.

When each one burned

1 99 ha 2 19,996 ha 3 13,526 ha 4 72 ha

12 Sept21 Sept

negligence arson

1 Castro Daire Parada de Ester 12 September 2024 · 22:28 99 ha · extinguished on 13 September 2024 · cause: negligence
2 Vila Nova de Paiva Vila Cova à Coelheira 16 September 2024 · 17:18 19,996 ha · extinguished on 20 September 2024 · cause: arson
3 Castro Daire Pinheiro 17 September 2024 · 12:46 13,526 ha · extinguished on 21 September 2024 · cause: arson
4 Cinfães Alhões 18 September 2024 · 12:20 72 ha · extinguished on 18 September 2024 · cause: negligence

Total according to ICNF: 33,693 ha, 95 % of the 35,523 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.

Checked against the press

Checked on 29 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 Castro Daire · Incêndio de Arouca · Incêndio de Mões
According to the sources, several fires that ended up merging:: Castro Daire (Mões / Moção) 16 September 2024 18,369 ha

Castro Daire (Pinheiro / Montemuro) 16 September 2024

Arouca 17 September 2024 6,000 ha; Declared under control (not yet extinguished): 20 September 2024

Sources

Ativado Plano Municipal de Emergência de Proteção Civil — Câmara Municipal de Arouca, 18 September 2024 · official source
Até agora, maior incêndio do ano foi em Castro Daire — Jornal do Centro, 29 October 2024
Incêndios. Área ardida em Arouca corresponde a 20% do concelho — Observador, 23 September 2024
Protecção Civil diz que fogos de Castro Daire, Arouca e São Pedro do Sul estão dominados — DNOTICIAS.PT (agencia Lusa), 20 September 2024

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)
14 Sept	24.9 °C	32 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
15 Sept	27.6 °C	24 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
16 Sept	29.3 °C	14 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
17 Sept	24.8 °C	25 %	56 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
18 Sept	25.1 °C	35 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
19 Sept	23.5 °C	50 %	31 km/h	0.4 mm	High 23
20 Sept	19.8 °C	69 %	25 km/h	7.3 mm	Very low 0
21 Sept	19.5 °C	67 %	32 km/h	4.5 mm	Very low 0
22 Sept	19.1 °C	63 %	34 km/h	1.0 mm	Very low 2
23 Sept	20.0 °C	50 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 6
24 Sept after	15.4 °C	88 %	28 km/h	14.0 mm	Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 7 Sept 2024

After · 30 Sept 2024

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 20 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 490 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 178: 12 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak490 µg/m³

Days over the guideline4 days

PM10784 µg/m³

Optical depth4.02

WHO 15

121314151617181920212223242526

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 · 2,474Every 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 Castro Daire fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 September 2024 to 23 September 2024 (10 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 September 2024 to 23 September 2024. According to ICNF, the largest of the 4 recorded fires was detected on 16 September 2024 at 17:18 and declared extinguished on 20 September 2024.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 35,523 hectares (355.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 28 municipalities: São Martinho das Moitas e Covas do Rio (4,890 ha, 91 %); Mões (3,937 ha, 89 %); Sul (3,553 ha, 68 %); Parada de Ester e Ester (3,284 ha, 81 %); Moledo (2,991 ha, 64 %); Covelo de Paivó e Janarde (2,551 ha, 58 %); Alvarenga (2,068 ha, 53 %); Pindelo dos Milagres (1,886 ha, 79 %); Mamouros, Alva e Ribolhos (1,773 ha, 76 %); União das Freguesias de Reriz e Gafanhão (1,549 ha, 68 %); Cabril (1,136 ha, 51 %); Pepim (938 ha, 76 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire reached the centre of São Martinho das Moitas e Covas do Rio: 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 29.3 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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 ›

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

How we know this

Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 16 September 2024 to 23 September 2024. 2,474 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with ICNF: 33,693 official ha against 35,523 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
Checked against news and agencies: 4 confirmed sources.
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 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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