Mangualde fire, July 2025 Fornos de Maceira Dão, Mangualde, Mesquitela e Cunha Alta
The fire started on 29 July 2025 in Fornos de Maceira Dão, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 163 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 29 July 2025 at 01:19 and declared extinguished on 29 July 2025.
It is the 8th largest in Mangualde since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 72 in Portugal in 2025, of 85.
The power measured by the satellite is low (17.7 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…
- Burnt area
- 163ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 29 Jul 2025 – 30 Jul 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- freguesias
- Started on
- 29 Jul
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 10
- in a single hotspot: 18 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 121MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
29 Jul 2025 · 121 MW · 10
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.
This area had burned before
53% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 87 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
97 ha reached on 29 Jul6.0 %
-
Mangualde, Mesquitela e Cunha Alta 9,858 inhabitants · 4.2 km from the centre66 ha reached on 29 Jul1.4 %
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 land64 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland32 %
- Agricultural areas4.2 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Official record
According to ICNF, this fire started on 29 July 2025 and burned 157 ha (the satellite measured 163 ha).
- Mangualde Mangualde 29 July 2025 · 01:19 157 ha · extinguished on 29 July 2025 · 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Jul | 32.8 °C | 23 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 30 Jul | 32.9 °C | 22 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 31 Jul after | 33.4 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 41 |
| 1 Aug after | 32.2 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 38 |
| 2 Aug after | 33.7 °C | 28 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 3 Aug after | 36.2 °C | 20 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 4 Aug after | 35.7 °C | 26 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 5 Aug after | 37.6 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 6 Aug after | 33.4 °C | 33 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 7 Aug after | 33.8 °C | 30 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 8 Aug after | 32.3 °C | 39 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 9 Aug after | 35.0 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
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 31 July 2025 the air beside the fire reached 64 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.0 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 · 10Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 8,554 haPenalva do Castelo Vila Cova do Covelo/MarecoSeptember 2024 · 5 days · 12 km away
- 19,125 haSeia Pamos Da SerraOctober 2017 · 8 days · 21 km away
- 19,317 haVouzela AlcofraOctober 2017 · 4 days · 27 km away
- 25,260 haSerra da Estrela SameiroAugust 2022 · 18 days · 33 km away
- 35,523 haCastro Daire União das Freguesias de Picão e ErmidaSeptember 2024 · 10 days · 35 km away
- 132,830 haPombeiro da BeiraOctober 2017 · 10 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mangualde fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 29 July 2025 and 30 July 2025: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 29 July 2025 at 01:19 and declared extinguished on 29 July 2025.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 163 hectares (1.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Fornos de Maceira Dão (97 ha, 6.0 %); Mangualde, Mesquitela e Cunha Alta (66 ha, 1.4 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Fornos de Maceira Dão and came within 0.6 km of its centre. 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 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 50 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 · 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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. 10 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 157 official ha against 163 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.