Skip to content
worldfires
PT · Portugal · →

Chaves fire, October 2017 São Pedro de Agostém, Vilela do Tâmega, Vilas Boas

Out · last detection 12 Oct 2017, 02:31 UTC

The fire started on 11 October 2017 in São Pedro de Agostém, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 516 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 11 October 2017 at 15:30 and declared extinguished on 12 October 2017.

It is the 7th largest in Chaves since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 92 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.

The power measured by the satellite is low (1.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
516ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
11 Oct 2017 – 12 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
3
freguesias
Started on
11 Oct
2017
Heat detections
6
in a single hotspot: 2 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
8MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Oct12 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

12

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

The weather it burned in

26°high
29km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 15.5 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

  1. São Pedro de Agostém 1,323 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the town where it started
    413 ha reached on 12 Oct
    15 %
  2. Vilela do Tâmega 353 inhabitants · 1.9 km from the town
    69 ha reached on 12 Oct
    7.2 %
  3. Vilas Boas 164 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the town
    34 ha
    5.0 %

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

  • Agricultural areas38 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland24 %
  • Mixed forest21 %
  • Coniferous forest17 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 11 October 2017 and burned 513 ha (the satellite measured 516 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.

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)
11 Oct 24.9 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Oct 26.0 °C 22 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Oct after 25.4 °C 27 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Oct after 26.7 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Oct after 29.0 °C 20 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Oct after 21.3 °C 43 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
17 Oct after 17.4 °C 48 % 38 km/h 15.5 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Oct 2017
After · 19 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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 15 October 2017 the air beside the fire reached 34 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 19: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak34 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM1050 µg/m³
9101112131415
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 · 6Every 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 Chaves fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 11 October 2017 and 12 October 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 11 October 2017 at 15:30 and declared extinguished on 12 October 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 516 hectares (5.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: São Pedro de Agostém (413 ha, 15 %); Vilela do Tâmega (69 ha, 7.2 %); Vilas Boas (34 ha, 5.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.5 km of São Pedro de Agostém. 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 26.0 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.