How long did the Monte e Queimadela fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 15 September 2024 and 17 September 2024: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 15 September 2024 at 00:21 and declared extinguished on 15 September 2024.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 306 hectares (3.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 6 municipalities: Monte e Queimadela (183 ha, 9.0 %); Revelhe (86 ha, 18 %); Vinhós (18 ha, 6.4 %); Aboim, Felgueiras, Gontim e Pedraído (10 ha, 0.4 %); Travassós (6 ha, 0.7 %); Estorãos (3 ha, 0.5 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire came within 0.6 km of the centre of Vinhós, 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 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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.

PT · Portugal · 2024-09-15 → 2024-09-17

Monte e Queimadela fire, September 2024 Monte e Queimadela, Revelhe, Vinhós

Out · last detection 17 Sept 2024, 12:38 UTC

The fire started on 15 September 2024 in Monte e Queimadela, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 306 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 6 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 15 September 2024 at 00:21 and declared extinguished on 15 September 2024.

It is the 5th largest in Fafe since 2016 (of 19 with a page). Number 46 in Portugal in 2024, of 69.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Celorico de Basto · 2024 Cabeceiras de Basto · 2024 Ribeira de Pena · 2016 Vila Real · 2025

Burnt area: 306ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 3days; 15 Sept 2024 – 17 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit: 6; freguesias
Started on: 15 Sept; 2024
Heat detections: 35; in a single hotspot: 72 MW
Danger at start: 40; Very high · FWI index
Average daily power: 219MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Sept17 Sept

Play back 17 Sept 2024

How it evolved, day by day

15 Sept 16 Sept 17 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

31°high

54km/h · peak gust

8%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.7 mm on 20 Sept.

This area had burned before

38% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 29 ha in 2017, 19 ha in 2021, 85 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 115 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Monte e Queimadela 659 inhabitants · 1.0 km from the centre where it started

183 ha reached on 15 Sept

9.0 %
Revelhe 788 inhabitants · 0.7 km from the centre

86 ha reached on 15 Sept

18 %
Vinhós 570 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the centre

18 ha reached on 17 Sept

6.4 %
Aboim, Felgueiras, Gontim e Pedraído 773 inhabitants · 3.8 km from the centre

10 ha reached on 15 Sept

0.4 %
Travassós 1,444 inhabitants · 1.3 km from the centre

6 ha reached on 17 Sept

0.7 %
Estorãos 1.4 km from the centre

3 ha reached on 15 Sept

0.5 %

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 land65 %
Scrub and transitional woodland15 %
Broadleaved forest11 %
Mixed forest8.0 %
Agricultural areas0.7 %

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

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025

Built-up area0.29 ha

Residents≈ 30

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.29 hectares of built-up land and about 30 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 15 September 2024 and burned 299 ha (the satellite measured 306 ha).

Fafe Pedraído 15 September 2024 · 00:21 299 ha · extinguished on 15 September 2024 · 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 Sept	29.0 °C	8 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
16 Sept	31.1 °C	12 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
17 Sept	26.5 °C	23 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
18 Sept after	25.5 °C	31 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
19 Sept after	22.8 °C	53 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
20 Sept after	20.2 °C	68 %	25 km/h	4.7 mm	Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 8 Sept 2024

After · 24 Sept 2024

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 19 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 192 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 80: 5.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak192 µg/m³

Days over the guideline3 days

PM10255 µg/m³

Optical depth3.49

WHO 15

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 · 35Every 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 Monte e Queimadela fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 15 September 2024 and 17 September 2024: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 15 September 2024 at 00:21 and declared extinguished on 15 September 2024.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 306 hectares (3.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 6 municipalities: Monte e Queimadela (183 ha, 9.0 %); Revelhe (86 ha, 18 %); Vinhós (18 ha, 6.4 %); Aboim, Felgueiras, Gontim e Pedraído (10 ha, 0.4 %); Travassós (6 ha, 0.7 %); Estorãos (3 ha, 0.5 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire came within 0.6 km of the centre of Vinhós, 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 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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 · 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. 35 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with ICNF: 299 official ha against 306 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

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