How long did the Fafe fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 4 August 2025 and 5 August 2025: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 4 August 2025 at 03:44 and declared extinguished on 4 August 2025.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 201 hectares (2.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: São Gens (100 ha, 6.7 %); Quinchães (88 ha, 8.3 %); Rego (14 ha, 0.8 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire started in Quinchães and came within 0.7 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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.

PT · Portugal · 2025-08-04 → 2025-08-05

Fafe fire, August 2025 São Gens, Quinchães, Rego

Out · last detection 4 Aug 2025, 14:02 UTC

The fire started on 4 August 2025 in Quinchães, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 201 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 4 August 2025 at 03:44 and declared extinguished on 4 August 2025.

It is the 9th largest in Fafe since 2016 (of 19 with a page). Number 62 in Portugal in 2025, of 85.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Fafe · 2016 Celorico de Basto · 2024 Cabeceiras de Basto · 2024 União das Freguesias de Campelo e Ovil e Loivos do Monte · 2024

Burnt area: 201ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 4 Aug 2025 – 5 Aug 2025
Municipalities hit: 3; freguesias
Started on: 4 Aug; 2025
Heat detections: 5; in a single hotspot: 135 MW
Danger at start: 32; High · FWI index
Average daily power: 356MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Aug5 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

4 Aug 2025 · 356 MW · 5

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

The weather it burned in

35°high

32km/h · peak gust

24%lowest humidity

It had gone 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

22% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 31 ha in 2016, 36 ha in 2022, 1 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 44 ha that had burned before.

31 ha Fafe fire, September 2016 148 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

São Gens 1,643 inhabitants · 1.1 km from the centre

100 ha reached on 4 Aug

6.7 %
Quinchães 2,171 inhabitants · 0.7 km from the centre where it started

88 ha

8.3 %
Rego 1,032 inhabitants · 1.6 km from the centre

14 ha reached on 4 Aug

0.8 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

What burned

Other natural land53 %
Scrub and transitional woodland22 %
Artificial surfaces16 %
Agricultural areas5.4 %
Mixed forest3.4 %

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

Official record

Complex of 2 fires according to ICNF

According to ICNF, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 250 ha (the satellite measured 201 ha).

ICNF records each fire that started at a different time or place separately; the satellite sees a single burned area, so this page groups them together. The numbers on the map show where each one started.

When each one burned

1 22 ha 2 228 ha

31 Jul5 Aug

arson

1 Fafe São Gens 31 July 2025 · 06:44 22 ha · extinguished on 31 July 2025 · cause: arson
2 Fafe São Gens 4 August 2025 · 03:44 228 ha · extinguished on 4 August 2025 · cause: arson

Total according to ICNF: 250 ha, 124 % of the 201 ha in the satellite perimeter.

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)
4 Aug	33.6 °C	26 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
5 Aug	35.0 °C	24 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
6 Aug after	30.5 °C	37 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
7 Aug after	31.1 °C	36 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
8 Aug after	30.7 °C	43 %	29 km/h	0.5 mm	High 28
9 Aug after	32.3 °C	37 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
10 Aug after	32.8 °C	33 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
11 Aug after	32.5 °C	29 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
12 Aug after	30.8 °C	36 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
13 Aug after	30.1 °C	39 %	32 km/h	0.3 mm	High 29
14 Aug after	31.8 °C	36 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
15 Aug after	29.5 °C	39 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 28 Jul 2025

After · 12 Aug 2025

Before After

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 7 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 138 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 65: 4.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak138 µg/m³

Days over the guideline4 days

PM10238 µg/m³

Optical depth0.66

WHO 15

2345678

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 · 5Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Fafe fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 4 August 2025 and 5 August 2025: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 4 August 2025 at 03:44 and declared extinguished on 4 August 2025.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 201 hectares (2.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: São Gens (100 ha, 6.7 %); Quinchães (88 ha, 8.3 %); Rego (14 ha, 0.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire started in Quinchães and came within 0.7 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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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What really happened?

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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.

How we know this

Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 5 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with ICNF: 250 official ha against 201 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.

Where it burned