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Chave fire, October 2017 União das Freguesias de Raiva, Pedorido e Paraíso, São Miguel do Mato, Escariz

Out · last detection 16 Oct 2017, 02:56 UTC

The fire started on 15 October 2017 in Chave, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 8,253 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 14 municipalities. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 15 October 2017 at 07:15 and declared extinguished on 15 October 2017.

Number 13 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.

Burnt area
8,253ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
15 Oct 2017 – 16 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
14
freguesias
Started on
15 Oct
2017
Heat detections
67
in a single hotspot: 617 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Oct 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Oct16 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1516

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
63km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 26.1 mm on 17 Oct.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 25 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. União das Freguesias de Raiva, Pedorido e Paraíso 2,312 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    4,027 ha
    81 %
  2. São Miguel do Mato 0.0 km from the town
    1,023 ha
    59 %
  3. Escariz
    683 ha reached on 13 Oct
    39 %
  4. Mansores 1,100 inhabitants · 0.4 km from the town
    674 ha reached on 15 Oct
    47 %
  5. Fermedo
    520 ha
    47 %
  6. Santa Maria de Sardoura 2,275 inhabitants · 0.1 km from the town
    417 ha
    42 %
  7. Lomba 1,286 inhabitants · 2.4 km from the town
    207 ha
    15 %
  8. Real 1.9 km from the town
    200 ha reached on 16 Oct
    6.0 %
  9. Chave 1,270 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the town where it started
    178 ha reached on 15 Oct
    16 %
  10. Macieira de Cambra 4,391 inhabitants · 2.5 km from the town
    160 ha reached on 15 Oct
    8.9 %
  11. Tropeço 1,086 inhabitants · 4.2 km from the town
    131 ha
    7.3 %
  12. Vila Chã, Codal e Vila Cova de Perrinho 5,350 inhabitants · 1.9 km from the town
    28 ha reached on 15 Oct
    2.1 %
  13. União das Freguesias de Canedo, Vale e Vila Maior 1,511 inhabitants · 9.0 km from the town
    14 ha
    0.3 %
  14. União das Freguesias de Lobão, Gião, Louredo e Guisande 1,325 inhabitants · 5.8 km from the town
    0 ha
    0.0 %

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 woodland33 %
  • Mixed forest28 %
  • Broadleaved forest26 %
  • Agricultural areas12 %
  • Coniferous forest0.7 %
  • Artificial surfaces0.5 %

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 9,287 ha (the satellite measured 8,253 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 2 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
Incêndio de Vale de Cambra · Incêndio de Macieira de Cambra · incêndio de Vale de Cambra/Arouca

Sources

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 Oct 24.9 °C 44 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
14 Oct 30.1 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
15 Oct 33.8 °C 20 % 63 km/h 1.5 mm High 37
16 Oct 24.0 °C 41 % 37 km/h 3.5 mm Low 6
17 Oct after 20.6 °C 50 % 42 km/h 26.1 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Oct 2017
After · 23 Oct 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 · 67Every 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 Chave fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 15 October 2017 and 16 October 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 15 October 2017 at 07:15 and declared extinguished on 15 October 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 8,253 hectares (82.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 14 municipalities: União das Freguesias de Raiva, Pedorido e Paraíso (4,027 ha, 81 %); São Miguel do Mato (1,023 ha, 59 %); Escariz (683 ha, 39 %); Mansores (674 ha, 47 %); Fermedo (520 ha, 47 %); Santa Maria de Sardoura (417 ha, 42 %); Lomba (207 ha, 15 %); Real (200 ha, 6.0 %); Chave (178 ha, 16 %); Macieira de Cambra (160 ha, 8.9 %); Tropeço (131 ha, 7.3 %); Vila Chã, Codal e Vila Cova de Perrinho (28 ha, 2.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of União das Freguesias de Raiva, Pedorido e Paraíso. 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 20 % and gusts hit 63 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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

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.