Oleiros fire, July 2020 Ermida e Figueiredo, Isna, Troviscal
The fire started on 25 July 2020 in Ermida e Figueiredo, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 5,951 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 8 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 25 July 2020 at 15:31 and declared extinguished on 29 July 2020.
Number 2 in Portugal in 2020, of 67.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 5,951ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 3days
- 25 Jul 2020 – 27 Jul 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 8
- freguesias
- Started on
- 25 Jul
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 223
- in a single hotspot: 202 MW
- Danger at start
- 38
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 2.1GW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
3% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 106 ha in 2017, 86 ha in 2019.
- 86 ha Várzea dos Cavaleiros fire, July 2019 105 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 80 ha Várzea dos Cavaleiros fire, August 2017 317 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 26 ha Oleiros fire, October 2017 34,844 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
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
-
2,908 ha reached on 26 Jul68 %
-
Isna 151 inhabitants · 1.7 km from the centre1,206 ha reached on 26 Jul43 %
-
Troviscal 693 inhabitants · 2.1 km from the centre931 ha reached on 26 Jul17 %
-
Proença a Nova e Peral 4,498 inhabitants · 4.5 km from the centre537 ha reached on 26 Jul3.1 %
-
Oleiros-Amieira 2,081 inhabitants · 7.5 km from the centre270 ha reached on 26 Jul1.9 %
-
Mosteiro 260 inhabitants · 2.1 km from the centre58 ha reached on 26 Jul3.3 %
-
Várzea dos Cavaleiros 627 inhabitants · 3.1 km from the centre47 ha reached on 26 Jul1.4 %
-
1 ha reached on 27 Jul0.0 %
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
- Scrub and transitional woodland76 %
- Other natural land9.6 %
- Agricultural areas6.4 %
- Coniferous forest3.3 %
- Mixed forest2.6 %
- Broadleaved forest1.6 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Official record
According to ICNF, this fire started on 25 July 2020 and burned 5,590 ha (the satellite measured 5,951 ha).
- Oleiros Oleiros 25 July 2020 · 15:31 5,590 ha · extinguished on 29 July 2020 · cause: unknown
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 2026We checked this page against 3 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:
- Also known as
- Incêndio de Oleiros / Sertã / Proença-a-Nova · Fogo de Oleiros
- Official area reported: 5,590 ha (the satellite measured 5,951 ha)
- Declared extinguished: 29 July 2020
Sources
- Incêndios. Fogo de Oleiros em julho queimou 2.900 hectares de pinheiro bravo — Observador, 25 August 2020
- Perímetro do fogo dominado em Oleiros. Área ardida ronda os seis mil hectares — Observador, 27 July 2020
- Fogo dominado em Oleiros. Primeiro balanço aponta para seis mil hectares ardidos — Diário de Notícias, 27 July 2020
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Jul | 30.8 °C | 23 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 26 Jul | 33.4 °C | 18 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 27 Jul | 31.9 °C | 29 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 28 Jul after | 29.6 °C | 38 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 29 Jul after | 32.4 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 30 Jul after | 30.2 °C | 26 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 31 Jul after | 30.6 °C | 21 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 1 Aug after | 28.1 °C | 40 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 2 Aug after | 28.4 °C | 25 % | 61 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 3 Aug after | 26.4 °C | 32 % | 66 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 4 Aug after | 31.2 °C | 22 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 5 Aug after | 33.2 °C | 21 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 6 Aug after | 32.2 °C | 25 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
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 26 July 2020 the air beside the fire reached 66 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 26: 1.7 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 · 223Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 15,536 haProença-a-Nova União das freguesias de Sobreira Formosa e Alvito da BeiraSeptember 2020 · 8 days · 14 km away
- 9,924 haVila de Rei CardigosJuly 2019 · 3 days · 18 km away
- 34,844 haOleiros MadeirãOctober 2017 · 8 days · 21 km away
- 8,478 haCambasAugust 2017 · 5 days · 21 km away
- 36,849 haSertã Várzea dos Cavaleiros23 July 2017 · 6 days · 22 km away
- 25,305 haFerreira do Zêzere Nossa Senhora do PrantoAugust 2017 · 9 days · 25 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Oleiros fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 25 July 2020 and 27 July 2020: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 25 July 2020 at 15:31 and declared extinguished on 29 July 2020.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 5,951 hectares (59.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 8 municipalities: Ermida e Figueiredo (2,908 ha, 68 %); Isna (1,206 ha, 43 %); Troviscal (931 ha, 17 %); Proença a Nova e Peral (537 ha, 3.1 %); Oleiros-Amieira (270 ha, 1.9 %); Mosteiro (58 ha, 3.3 %); Várzea dos Cavaleiros (47 ha, 1.4 %); União das freguesias de Sobreira Formosa e Alvito da Beira (1 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Ermida e Figueiredo and reached its centre: the point marking it was inside the burnt area or less than 500 metres from it. That does not mean houses burned.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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. 223 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 5,590 official ha against 5,951 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.
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.