Guarda fire, 15 October 2017 João Antão, Panoias de Cima, Ramela
The fire started on 15 October 2017 in João Antão, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 665 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 15 October 2017 at 23:22 and declared extinguished on 17 October 2017.
It is the 7th largest in Guarda since 2016 (of 12 with a page). Number 79 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 665ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 15 Oct 2017 – 16 Oct 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- freguesias
- Started on
- 15 Oct
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 96
- in a single hotspot: 76 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 1.8GW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
16 Oct 2017 · 1,789 MW · 96
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 46 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 12.6 mm on 17 Oct.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
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
-
338 ha reached on 16 Oct38 %
-
Panoias de Cima 568 inhabitants · 0.1 km from the town165 ha reached on 16 Oct14 %
-
Ramela 181 inhabitants · 1.0 km from the town162 ha reached on 16 Oct16 %
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 woodland49 %
- Mixed forest27 %
- Other natural land19 %
- Agricultural areas5.0 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Official record
According to ICNF, this fire started on 15 October 2017 and burned 662 ha (the satellite measured 665 ha).
- Guarda Ramela 15 October 2017 · 23:22 662 ha · extinguished on 17 October 2017 · 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Oct | 28.9 °C | 20 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 16 Oct | 21.3 °C | 32 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 17 Oct after | 17.0 °C | 49 % | 45 km/h | 12.6 mm | Very low 1 |
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 16 October 2017 the air beside the fire reached 120 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 74: 4.9 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 · 96Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 23,594 haSabugal Quintas de São BartolomeuAugust 2025 · 7 days · 14 km away
- 8,991 haGuarda Rochoso e Monte Margarida17 July 2017 · 3 days · 19 km away
- 25,260 haSerra da Estrela SameiroAugust 2022 · 18 days · 21 km away
- 5,226 haGuarda CerdeiraJuly 2026 · 3 days · 21 km away
- 9,523 haGuarda Alverca da Beira/Bouça CovaAugust 2025 · 3 days · 25 km away
- 19,125 haSeia Pamos Da SerraOctober 2017 · 8 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Guarda fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 15 October 2017 and 16 October 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 15 October 2017 at 23:22 and declared extinguished on 17 October 2017.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 665 hectares (6.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: João Antão (338 ha, 38 %); Panoias de Cima (165 ha, 14 %); Ramela (162 ha, 16 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.1 km of Panoias de Cima. 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 28.9 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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
- ICNF · Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas ↗
- ANEPC · Proteção Civil ↗
- Fogos.pt (ocorrências em tempo real) ↗
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 96 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 662 official ha against 665 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.