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Fafe fire, September 2018 Freitas e Vila Cova, Monte e Queimadela, União de Freguesias de Agrela e Serafão

Out · last detection 26 Sept 2018, 13:10 UTC

The fire started on 25 September 2018 in Freitas e Vila Cova, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 177 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 13th largest in Fafe since 2016 (of 20 with a page). Number 14 in Portugal in 2018, of 23.

The power measured by the satellite is low (7.3 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
177ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
25 Sept 2018 – 26 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
3
freguesias
Started on
25 Sept
2018
Heat detections
4
in a single hotspot: 7 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
25MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Sept26 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

2526

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
46km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

14% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 25 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Freitas e Vila Cova 748 inhabitants · 1.3 km from the town where it started
    114 ha reached on 25 Sept
    9.8 %
  2. Monte e Queimadela 659 inhabitants · 2.4 km from the town
    39 ha
    1.9 %
  3. União de Freguesias de Agrela e Serafão 1,208 inhabitants · 0.7 km from the town
    23 ha reached on 25 Sept
    2.5 %

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 woodland61 %
  • Mixed forest21 %
  • Other natural land18 %

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 142 ha (the satellite measured 177 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)
25 Sept 28.3 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Sept 29.6 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 Sept after 27.7 °C 47 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
28 Sept after 25.8 °C 46 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
29 Sept after 26.7 °C 42 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
30 Sept after 26.2 °C 48 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
1 Oct after 25.7 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
2 Oct after 26.3 °C 17 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Oct after 27.5 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Oct after 27.1 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
5 Oct after 23.3 °C 36 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
6 Oct after 20.6 °C 50 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 24

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Sept 2018
After · 3 Oct 2018

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 26 September 2018 the air beside the fire reached 19 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak19 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1029 µg/m³
23242526272829
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 · 4Every 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 25 September 2018 and 26 September 2018: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 177 hectares (1.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Freitas e Vila Cova (114 ha, 9.8 %); Monte e Queimadela (39 ha, 1.9 %); União de Freguesias de Agrela e Serafão (23 ha, 2.5 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.7 km of União de Freguesias de Agrela e Serafão. 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 29.6 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 46 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
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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.