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Cinfães fire, 8 October 2016 Parada de Ester e Ester, Alhões, Bustelo, Gralheira e Ramires, Cabril

Out · last detection 10 Oct 2016, 02:12 UTC

The fire started on 8 October 2016 in Parada de Ester e Ester, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 259 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 11th largest in Castro Daire since 2016 (of 15 with a page). Number 91 in Portugal in 2016, of 179.

The power measured by the satellite is low (27.0 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
259ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
8 Oct 2016 – 9 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
3
freguesias
Started on
8 Oct
2016
Heat detections
17
in a single hotspot: 27 MW
Danger at start
16
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
233MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Oct9 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

8910

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

The weather it burned in

18°high
35km/h · peak gust
44%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.1 mm on 11 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. Parada de Ester e Ester 744 inhabitants · 2.6 km from the town
    147 ha reached on 8 Oct
    3.6 %
  2. Alhões, Bustelo, Gralheira e Ramires 517 inhabitants · 5.6 km from the town where it started
    88 ha reached on 8 Oct
    2.4 %
  3. Cabril 4.3 km from the town
    25 ha
    1.1 %

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

  • Other natural land100 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

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, 3 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 175 ha (the satellite measured 259 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

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)
8 Oct 18.2 °C 48 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
9 Oct 17.6 °C 44 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
10 Oct after 16.8 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
11 Oct after 13.3 °C 57 % 41 km/h 5.1 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Oct 2016
After · 16 Oct 2016

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 8 October 2016 the air beside the fire reached 31 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 22: 1.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak31 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1039 µg/m³
678910111213
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 · 17Every 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 Cinfães fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 8 October 2016 and 9 October 2016: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 259 hectares (2.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Parada de Ester e Ester (147 ha, 3.6 %); Alhões, Bustelo, Gralheira e Ramires (88 ha, 2.4 %); Cabril (25 ha, 1.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.6 km of Parada de Ester e Ester. 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 18.2 °C, humidity dropped to 44 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 16, class Moderate.
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.

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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.

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.