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Guarda fire, August 2025 Freixedas, Alverca da Beira/Bouça Cova, Avelãs da Ribeira

Out · last detection 17 Aug 2025, 13:18 UTC

The fire started on 15 August 2025 in Freixedas, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 9,523 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 17 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 15 August 2025 at 10:44 and declared extinguished on 18 August 2025.

It is the largest fire in Pinhel since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 5 in Portugal in 2025, of 85.

Burnt area
9,523ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
3days
15 Aug 2025 – 17 Aug 2025
Municipalities hit
17
freguesias
Started on
15 Aug
2025
Heat detections
214
in a single hotspot: 358 MW
Danger at start
61
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
13.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Aug 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug17 Aug

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

38°high
45km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

4% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 99 ha in 2016, 244 ha in 2017, 14 ha in 2019, 49 ha in 2022.

What happened to each town

  1. Freixedas 735 inhabitants · 0.2 km from the town
    2,436 ha reached on 16 Aug
    74 %
  2. Alverca da Beira/Bouça Cova 420 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town where it started
    1,949 ha reached on 15 Aug
    99 %
  3. Avelãs da Ribeira 142 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    1,091 ha reached on 15 Aug
    96 %
  4. Vila Franca do Deão 134 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    854 ha reached on 15 Aug
    65 %
  5. Terras De Massueime
    803 ha reached on 16 Aug
    64 %
  6. Granja 0.0 km from the town
    647 ha reached on 16 Aug
    70 %
  7. Codesseiro 160 inhabitants · 0.1 km from the town
    535 ha reached on 15 Aug
    56 %
  8. Sul de Pinhel 360 inhabitants · 1.7 km from the town
    521 ha reached on 16 Aug
    13 %
  9. Avelãs de Ambom e Rocamondo 154 inhabitants · 0.1 km from the town
    298 ha reached on 15 Aug
    22 %
  10. Souro Pires 473 inhabitants · 1.0 km from the town
    123 ha
    8.0 %
  11. Moimentinha 173 inhabitants · 0.1 km from the town
    117 ha
    17 %
  12. Vila Franca das Naves e Feital 876 inhabitants · 2.0 km from the town
    103 ha
    6.4 %
  13. Pêra do Moço 793 inhabitants · 1.4 km from the town
    31 ha reached on 15 Aug
    1.5 %
  14. Maçal do Chão 143 inhabitants · 4.1 km from the town
    14 ha
    1.0 %
  15. Vilares e Carnicães 307 inhabitants · 4.1 km from the town
    7 ha
    0.4 %
  16. Vale do Massueime 218 inhabitants · 3.4 km from the town
    1 ha
    0.0 %
  17. Lameiras 200 inhabitants · 2.4 km from the town
    1 ha
    0.1 %

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

  • Agricultural areas52 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland28 %
  • Other natural land15 %
  • Coniferous forest2.9 %
  • Mixed forest0.9 %
  • Other land cover0.8 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 15 August 2025 and burned 7,802 ha (the satellite measured 9,523 ha).

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.

Checked against the press

Checked on 30 September 2026

We checked this page against 4 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
Incêndio da Guarda · Incêndio de Vila Franca do Deão · Alverca da Beira / Freixedas

Sources

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 Aug 37.5 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
16 Aug 38.0 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 Aug 35.6 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
18 Aug after 30.7 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Aug after 28.9 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
20 Aug after 28.2 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 Aug after 28.5 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Aug after 30.2 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
23 Aug after 32.5 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Aug after 32.9 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Aug after 33.1 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Aug after 32.2 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
27 Aug after 26.6 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Aug 2025
After · 24 Aug 2025

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 17 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 130 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 76: 5.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak130 µg/m³
Days over the guideline5 days
PM10203 µg/m³
Optical depth1.53
1314151617181920
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 · 214Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Guarda fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 15 August 2025 and 17 August 2025: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 15 August 2025 at 10:44 and declared extinguished on 18 August 2025.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 9,523 hectares (95.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 17 municipalities: Freixedas (2,436 ha, 74 %); Alverca da Beira/Bouça Cova (1,949 ha, 99 %); Avelãs da Ribeira (1,091 ha, 96 %); Vila Franca do Deão (854 ha, 65 %); Terras De Massueime (803 ha, 64 %); Granja (647 ha, 70 %); Codesseiro (535 ha, 56 %); Sul de Pinhel (521 ha, 13 %); Avelãs de Ambom e Rocamondo (298 ha, 22 %); Souro Pires (123 ha, 8.0 %); Moimentinha (117 ha, 17 %); Vila Franca das Naves e Feital (103 ha, 6.4 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Alverca da Beira/Bouça Cova. 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 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, class Extreme.
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

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
What do you think is wrong?

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.