How long did the Fregim fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 15 September 2024 and 16 September 2024: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 150 hectares (1.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Mancelos (99 ha, 8.2 %); Fregim (51 ha, 5.0 %); Freixo de Cima e de Baixo (0 ha, 0.0 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.8 km of Freixo de Cima e de Baixo. 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 30.9 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Very 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 · 2024-09-15 → 2024-09-16

Fregim fire, September 2024 Mancelos, Fregim, Freixo de Cima e de Baixo

Out · last detection 17 Sept 2024, 02:56 UTC

The fire started on 15 September 2024 in Fregim, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 150 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 8th largest in Amarante since 2016 (of 11 with a page). Number 60 in Portugal in 2024, of 69.

Burnt area: 150ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 15 Sept 2024 – 16 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit: 3; freguesias
Started on: 15 Sept; 2024
Heat detections: 13; in a single hotspot: 54 MW
Danger at start: 36; High · FWI index
Energy released: 299MW; sum of detected power

Play back 17 Sept 2024

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Sept16 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

151617

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

The weather it burned in

31°high

53km/h · peak gust

13%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 9.9 mm on 20 Sept.

This area had burned before

27% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 39 ha in 2016, 1 ha in 2022.

What happened to each town

Mancelos 2,829 inhabitants · 1.5 km from the town

99 ha reached on 16 Sept

8.2 %
Fregim 2,730 inhabitants · 2.4 km from the town where it started

51 ha reached on 15 Sept

5.0 %
Freixo de Cima e de Baixo 3,451 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the town

0 ha

0.0 %

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

Scrub and transitional woodland79 %
Agricultural areas11 %
Mixed forest10 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 16 September 2024 and burned 381 ha (the satellite measured 150 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

Amarante Mancelos 16 September 2024 · 14:20 381 ha · extinguished on 17 September 2024 · cause: unknown

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)
15 Sept	29.1 °C	15 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
16 Sept	30.9 °C	13 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
17 Sept after	26.5 °C	22 %	57 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
18 Sept after	26.1 °C	34 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
19 Sept after	23.3 °C	55 %	26 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 20
20 Sept after	20.4 °C	69 %	27 km/h	9.9 mm	Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 8 Sept 2024

After · 23 Sept 2024

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 19 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 234 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 124: 8.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak234 µg/m³

Days over the guideline2 days

PM10323 µg/m³

Optical depth4.89

WHO 15

13141516171819

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 · 13Every 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 Fregim fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 15 September 2024 and 16 September 2024: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 150 hectares (1.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Mancelos (99 ha, 8.2 %); Fregim (51 ha, 5.0 %); Freixo de Cima e de Baixo (0 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.8 km of Freixo de Cima e de Baixo. 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 30.9 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Very 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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