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Fafe fire, October 2017 São Gens, Moreira do Rei e Várzea Cova, Basto (São Clemente)

Out · last detection 9 Oct 2017, 13:10 UTC

The fire started on 8 October 2017 in São Gens, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 302 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 8 October 2017 at 03:15 and declared extinguished on 8 October 2017.

It is the 7th largest in Fafe since 2016 (of 20 with a page). Number 118 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.

The power measured by the satellite is low (18.0 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
302ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
8 Oct 2017 – 9 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
3
freguesias
Started on
8 Oct
2017
Heat detections
23
in a single hotspot: 18 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
240MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Oct 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Oct9 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

89

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
23km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 22.8 mm on 17 Oct.

This area had burned before

4% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 11 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. São Gens 1,643 inhabitants · 3.3 km from the town where it started
    189 ha reached on 8 Oct
    13 %
  2. Moreira do Rei e Várzea Cova 1,656 inhabitants · 3.5 km from the town
    107 ha reached on 8 Oct
    3.8 %
  3. Basto (São Clemente) 1,382 inhabitants · 2.5 km from the town
    6 ha
    0.4 %

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 land67 %
  • Agricultural areas17 %
  • Broadleaved forest14 %
  • Mixed forest2.6 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 8 October 2017 and burned 335 ha (the satellite measured 302 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)
8 Oct 26.2 °C 15 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
9 Oct 24.3 °C 23 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Oct after 24.3 °C 22 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Oct after 22.6 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Oct after 25.3 °C 24 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 Oct after 23.1 °C 36 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
14 Oct after 25.7 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
15 Oct after 28.6 °C 22 % 54 km/h 0.4 mm High 37
16 Oct after 19.5 °C 51 % 39 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 19
17 Oct after 15.9 °C 50 % 43 km/h 22.8 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Oct 2017
After · 16 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 11 October 2017 the air beside the fire reached 27 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak27 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1041 µg/m³
6789101112
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 · 23Every 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 Fafe fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 8 October 2017 and 9 October 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 8 October 2017 at 03:15 and declared extinguished on 8 October 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 302 hectares (3.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: São Gens (189 ha, 13 %); Moreira do Rei e Várzea Cova (107 ha, 3.8 %); Basto (São Clemente) (6 ha, 0.4 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.5 km of Basto (São Clemente). 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 26.2 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 23 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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.

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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.