Freigil e Miomães fire, September 2024 Ferreiros de Tendais, Oliveira do Douro, Freigil e Miomães
The fire started on 16 September 2024 in Freigil e Miomães, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 2,406 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 7 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 16 September 2024 at 17:46 and declared extinguished on 18 September 2024.
It is the largest fire in Resende since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 11 in Portugal in 2024, of 69.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 2,406ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 4days
- 16 Sept 2024 – 19 Sept 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 7
- freguesias
- Started on
- 16 Sept
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 283
- in a single hotspot: 155 MW
- Danger at start
- 47
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 1.8GW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.3 mm on 20 Sept.
This area had burned before
42% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 971 ha in 2016, 337 ha in 2017, 24 ha in 2019, 325 ha in 2020, 5 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,009 ha that had burned before.
- 877 ha Cinfães fire, August 2016 974 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 337 ha Tendais fire, October 2017 887 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 296 ha Ferreiros de Tendais fire, October 2020 297 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 94 ha Resende fire, August 2016 736 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Lisbon boundary: geoBoundaries · geoBoundaries, DG Territory (CC0 1.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Ferreiros de Tendais 540 inhabitants · fire reached the centre713 ha reached on 17 Sept45 %
-
Oliveira do Douro 1,257 inhabitants · fire reached the centre660 ha reached on 17 Sept47 %
-
392 ha reached on 17 Sept53 %
-
Anreade e São Romão de Arego 1,348 inhabitants · fire reached the centre340 ha reached on 17 Sept34 %
-
São Cipriano 670 inhabitants · fire reached the centre158 ha reached on 17 Sept24 %
-
Alhões, Bustelo, Gralheira e Ramires 517 inhabitants · 6.4 km from the centre110 ha reached on 18 Sept3.0 %
-
Cárquere 746 inhabitants · 0.9 km from the centre35 ha reached on 17 Sept4.6 %
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
- Scrub and transitional woodland34 %
- Agricultural areas29 %
- Other natural land22 %
- Mixed forest6.2 %
- Coniferous forest6.2 %
- Broadleaved forest2.5 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 60 %
- LIC Serra de Montemuro PTCON0025
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.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Inside the perimeter there were about 11 hectares of built-up land and about 550 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
Official record
According to ICNF, this fire started on 16 September 2024 and burned 2,287 ha (the satellite measured 2,406 ha).
- Resende Cárquere 16 September 2024 · 17:46 2,287 ha · extinguished on 18 September 2024 · cause: arson
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Sept | 30.6 °C | 15 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 17 Sept | 26.1 °C | 25 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 18 Sept | 26.4 °C | 36 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 19 Sept | 24.8 °C | 50 % | 31 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 24 |
| 20 Sept after | 21.1 °C | 69 % | 25 km/h | 7.3 mm | Very low 0 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 19 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 371 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 174: 12 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 283Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,845 haUnião das Freguesias de Campelo e Ovil e Loivos do MonteSeptember 2024 · 3 days · 15 km away
- 35,523 haCastro Daire União das Freguesias de Picão e ErmidaSeptember 2024 · 10 days · 20 km away
- 6,555 haArouca RealJuly 2025 · 5 days · 21 km away
- 8,253 haChaveOctober 2017 · 5 days · 29 km away
- 78,447 haTrancoso Trancoso (São Pedro e Santa Maria) e Souto MaiorAugust 2025 · 11 days · 32 km away
- 30,331 haArouca Santa EuláliaAugust 2016 · 9 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Freigil e Miomães fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 16 September 2024 to 19 September 2024 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 17 September 2024 to 19 September 2024. According to ICNF, it was detected on 16 September 2024 at 17:46 and declared extinguished on 18 September 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 2,406 hectares (24.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 7 municipalities: Ferreiros de Tendais (713 ha, 45 %); Oliveira do Douro (660 ha, 47 %); Freigil e Miomães (392 ha, 53 %); Anreade e São Romão de Arego (340 ha, 34 %); São Cipriano (158 ha, 24 %); Alhões, Bustelo, Gralheira e Ramires (110 ha, 3.0 %); Cárquere (35 ha, 4.6 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Freigil e Miomães and reached its centre: the point marking it was inside the burnt area or less than 500 metres from it. That does not mean houses burned.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.6 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
- ICNF · Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas ↗
- ANEPC · Proteção Civil ↗
- Fogos.pt (ocorrências em tempo real) ↗
Satellite cross-check
History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Start date: 17 September 2024 → 16 September 2024.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 17 September 2024 to 19 September 2024. 283 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 2,287 official ha against 2,406 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.