Skip to content
worldfires
en
PT · Portugal · →

Guarda fire, July 2026 União das freguesias de Amoreira, Parada e Cabreira, Castanheira, Freixo

Out · last detection 29 Jul 2026, 02:17 UTC

The fire started on 27 July 2026 in Cerdeira, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 5,226 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 9 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 27 July 2026 at 13:39 and declared extinguished on 29 July 2026.

It is the 2th largest in Sabugal since 2016 (of 11 with a page). Number 3 in Portugal in 2026, of 78.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Guarda · 2017Almeida · 2022Guarda · 2017Guarda · 2025

Burnt area
5,226ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
3days
27 Jul 2026 – 29 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit
9
freguesias
Started on
27 Jul
2026
Heat detections
89
in a single hotspot: 140 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
817MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Jul29 Jul
29 Jul 2026

How it evolved, day by day

27 Jul 2026 · 690 MW · 16 28 Jul 2026 · 1,755 MW · 69 29 Jul 2026 · 5 MW · 4
27 Jul 28 Jul 29 Jul

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
46km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,316 ha in 2017, 102 ha in 2022.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 3.3% of the area of London (52 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. União das freguesias de Amoreira, Parada e Cabreira
    1,616 ha reached on 28 Jul
    51 %
  2. Castanheira 0.2 km from the town
    1,323 ha reached on 28 Jul
    53 %
  3. Freixo 167 inhabitants · 0.1 km from the town
    930 ha reached on 29 Jul
    54 %
  4. Cerdeira 188 inhabitants · 0.7 km from the town where it started
    574 ha reached on 27 Jul
    24 %
  5. Pínzio 365 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the town
    486 ha reached on 28 Jul
    18 %
  6. Azinhal, Peva e Valverde 261 inhabitants · 4.4 km from the town
    158 ha reached on 29 Jul
    3.4 %
  7. Rochoso e Monte Margarida 214 inhabitants · 5.3 km from the town
    138 ha reached on 27 Jul
    5.8 %
  8. Castelo Mendo, Ade, Monteperobolso e Mesquitela 208 inhabitants · 2.9 km from the town
    7 ha
    0.2 %
  9. Atalaia e Safurdão 200 inhabitants · 3.9 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

  • Other natural land62 %
  • Agricultural areas30 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland7.0 %
  • Broadleaved forest1.3 %

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 27 July 2026 and burned 4,977 ha (the satellite measured 5,226 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 3 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
Incêndio de Rochoso · fogo na Guarda · incêndio Guarda, Almeida, Pinhel e Sabugal
Official area reported: 4,977 ha (the satellite measured 5,226 ha)
Declared extinguished: 29 July 2026

Sources

Official figures are measured differently from satellite ones and sometimes cover only part of the fire.

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)
27 Jul 34.1 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Jul 36.1 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
29 Jul 34.3 °C 17 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
30 Jul after 34.0 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Jul after 33.5 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Aug after 34.5 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Aug after 31.8 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Aug after 30.0 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Aug after 28.5 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Aug after 31.3 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Aug after 33.7 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Aug after 34.1 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
8 Aug after 33.3 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Jul 2026
After · 5 Aug 2026

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 30 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 87 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 38: 2.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak87 µg/m³
Days over the guideline5 days
PM10110 µg/m³
Optical depth0.62
252627282930311
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 · 89Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 27 July 2026 to 29 July 2026 (3 days). The perimeter dates it from 27 July 2026 to 27 July 2026. According to ICNF, it was detected on 27 July 2026 at 13:39 and declared extinguished on 29 July 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 5,226 hectares (52.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 9 municipalities: União das freguesias de Amoreira, Parada e Cabreira (1,616 ha, 51 %); Castanheira (1,323 ha, 53 %); Freixo (930 ha, 54 %); Cerdeira (574 ha, 24 %); Pínzio (486 ha, 18 %); Azinhal, Peva e Valverde (158 ha, 3.4 %); Rochoso e Monte Margarida (138 ha, 5.8 %); Castelo Mendo, Ade, Monteperobolso e Mesquitela (7 ha, 0.2 %); Atalaia e Safurdão (0 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.1 km of Freixo. 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 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 27 July 2026 to 27 July 2026. 89 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • Compared with ICNF: 4,977 official ha against 5,226 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
  • Checked against news and agencies: 3 confirmed sources.
  • 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.