How long did the Guarda fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 29 September 2016 and 29 September 2016: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 28 September 2016 at 23:30 and declared extinguished on 29 September 2016.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 248 hectares (2.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: União das Freguesias de Rapa e Cadafaz (136 ha, 8.4 %); Aldeia Viçosa (68 ha, 9.2 %); Mizarela, Pêro Soares e Vila Soeiro (45 ha, 3.2 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire came within 1.1 km of the centre of Aldeia Viçosa, the closest of the areas it touched. 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 25.0 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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 · 2016-09-29 → 2016-09-29

Guarda fire, 29 September 2016 União das Freguesias de Rapa e Cadafaz, Aldeia Viçosa, Mizarela, Pêro Soares e Vila Soeiro

Out · last detection 29 Sept 2016, 02:19 UTC

The fire started on 29 September 2016 in União das Freguesias de Rapa e Cadafaz, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 248 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 28 September 2016 at 23:30 and declared extinguished on 29 September 2016.

Number 95 in Portugal in 2016, of 179.

The power measured by the satellite is low (10.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Guarda · 2025 Serra da Estrela · 2022 Fornos de Algodres · 2017 Guarda · 2017

Burnt area: 248ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 29 Sept 2016 – 29 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit: 3; freguesias
Started on: 29 Sept; 2016
Heat detections: 16; in a single hotspot: 11 MW
Danger at start: 27; High · FWI index
Average daily power: 97MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Sept29 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

29 Sept 2016 · 97 MW · 16

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

The weather it burned in

25°high

34km/h · peak gust

28%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

União das Freguesias de Rapa e Cadafaz 242 inhabitants · 1.5 km from the centre where it started

136 ha reached on 29 Sept

8.4 %
Aldeia Viçosa 267 inhabitants · 1.1 km from the centre

68 ha reached on 29 Sept

9.2 %
Mizarela, Pêro Soares e Vila Soeiro 200 inhabitants · 1.8 km from the centre

45 ha reached on 29 Sept

3.2 %

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 land58 %
Scrub and transitional woodland42 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

LIC Serra da Estrela PTCON0014

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.

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 28 September 2016 and burned 238 ha (the satellite measured 248 ha).

Guarda Mizarela 28 September 2016 · 23:30 238 ha · extinguished on 29 September 2016 · cause: negligence

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	Danger (FWI)
29 Sept	25.0 °C	28 %	34 km/h	High 27
30 Sept after	23.3 °C	34 %	35 km/h	High 29
1 Oct after	20.1 °C	41 %	29 km/h	High 23
2 Oct after	19.9 °C	37 %	18 km/h	Moderate 21
3 Oct after	22.8 °C	27 %	34 km/h	High 27
4 Oct after	23.4 °C	25 %	26 km/h	High 28
5 Oct after	22.4 °C	34 %	22 km/h	High 25
6 Oct after	24.6 °C	19 %	24 km/h	High 31
7 Oct after	23.2 °C	17 %	21 km/h	High 30
8 Oct after	23.0 °C	32 %	23 km/h	High 26
9 Oct after	21.6 °C	37 %	29 km/h	High 27

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 22 Sept 2016

After · 6 Oct 2016

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 1 October 2016 the air beside the fire reached 17 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak17 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1024 µg/m³

WHO 15

2728293012

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 · 16Every 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 Guarda fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 29 September 2016 and 29 September 2016: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 28 September 2016 at 23:30 and declared extinguished on 29 September 2016.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 248 hectares (2.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: União das Freguesias de Rapa e Cadafaz (136 ha, 8.4 %); Aldeia Viçosa (68 ha, 9.2 %); Mizarela, Pêro Soares e Vila Soeiro (45 ha, 3.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire came within 1.1 km of the centre of Aldeia Viçosa, the closest of the areas it touched. 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 25.0 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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

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How we know this

Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 16 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with ICNF: 238 official ha against 248 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