How long did the Ponte da Barca fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 13 July 2022 to 17 July 2022 (5 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 July 2022 to 16 July 2022. According to ICNF, it was detected on 12 July 2022 at 23:39 and declared extinguished on 16 July 2022.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 974 hectares (9.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Britelo (562 ha, 44 %); Entre Ambos-os-Rios, Ermida e Germil (357 ha, 9.2 %); Lindoso (56 ha, 1.2 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire started in Britelo 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 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, class 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.

PT · Portugal · 2022-07-13 → 2022-07-17

Ponte da Barca fire, July 2022 Britelo, Entre Ambos-os-Rios, Ermida e Germil, Lindoso

Out · last detection 17 Jul 2022, 13:48 UTC

The fire started on 13 July 2022 in Britelo, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 974 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 12 July 2022 at 23:39 and declared extinguished on 16 July 2022.

It is the 2th largest in Ponte da Barca since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 14 in Portugal in 2022, of 107.

The power measured by the satellite is low (11.9 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…

Suggestions: Ponte da Barca · 2025 Arcos de Valdevez · 2016 Entrimo · 2016 Muíños · 2017

Burnt area: 974ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 5days; 13 Jul 2022 – 17 Jul 2022
Municipalities hit: 3; freguesias
Started on: 13 Jul; 2022
Heat detections: 50; in a single hotspot: 12 MW
Danger at start: 18; Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power: 58MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Jul17 Jul

Play back 17 Jul 2022

How it evolved, day by day

13 Jul 14 Jul 15 Jul 17 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

35°high

55km/h · peak gust

31%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.3 mm on 19 Jul.

This area had burned before

8% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 69 ha in 2017, 6 ha in 2021.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 0.6% of the area of London (9.7 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

Britelo 379 inhabitants · fire reached the centre where it started

562 ha reached on 13 Jul

44 %
Entre Ambos-os-Rios, Ermida e Germil 498 inhabitants · 2.1 km from the centre

357 ha reached on 15 Jul

9.2 %
Lindoso 374 inhabitants · 4.7 km from the centre

56 ha reached on 13 Jul

1.2 %

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 land77 %
Scrub and transitional woodland13 %
Mixed forest4.3 %
Broadleaved forest2.4 %
Coniferous forest2.2 %
Agricultural areas1.2 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

LIC Peneda / Gerês PTCON0001
ZEPA Serra do Gerês PTZPE0002

Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.

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

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 12 July 2022 and burned 1,056 ha (the satellite measured 974 ha).

Ponte da Barca Lindoso 12 July 2022 · 23:39 1,056 ha · extinguished on 16 July 2022 · 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)
13 Jul	34.6 °C	35 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
14 Jul	35.2 °C	33 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
15 Jul	32.0 °C	31 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
16 Jul	30.8 °C	39 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
17 Jul	29.8 °C	50 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
18 Jul after	23.6 °C	66 %	52 km/h	0.6 mm	Moderate 13
19 Jul after	20.4 °C	71 %	45 km/h	5.3 mm	Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 6 Jul 2022

After · 24 Jul 2022

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 16 July 2022 the air beside the fire reached 31 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 22: 1.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak31 µg/m³

Days over the guideline4 days

PM1049 µg/m³

WHO 15

111213141516171819

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 · 50Every 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 Ponte da Barca fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 13 July 2022 to 17 July 2022 (5 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 July 2022 to 16 July 2022. According to ICNF, it was detected on 12 July 2022 at 23:39 and declared extinguished on 16 July 2022.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 974 hectares (9.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Britelo (562 ha, 44 %); Entre Ambos-os-Rios, Ermida e Germil (357 ha, 9.2 %); Lindoso (56 ha, 1.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire started in Britelo 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 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, class 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 ›

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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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.

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What really happened?

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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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 13 July 2022 to 16 July 2022. 50 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with ICNF: 1,056 official ha against 974 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
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.

Where it burned