Ponte da Barca fire, 4 September 2024 Azias, Valdreu, Vila Chã (São João Baptista e Santiago)
The fire started on 4 September 2024 in Azias, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 229 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, the largest of the 3 recorded fires was detected on 4 September 2024 at 11:57 and declared extinguished on 5 September 2024.
It is the 5th largest in Ponte da Barca since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 51 in Portugal in 2024, of 69.
The power measured by the satellite is low (16.0 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
- 229ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 4 Sept 2024 – 5 Sept 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- freguesias
- Started on
- 4 Sept
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 6
- in a single hotspot: 16 MW
- Danger at start
- 22
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 22MW
- 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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.6 mm on 6 Sept.
This area had burned before
82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 151 ha in 2016, 4 ha in 2017, 160 ha in 2020, 6 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 188 ha that had burned before.
- 160 ha Valdreu fire, September 2020 166 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 148 ha Valdreu fire, August 2016 185 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3 ha Vila Verde fire, August 2016 293 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
130 ha reached on 4 Sept16 %
-
Valdreu 434 inhabitants · 2.3 km from the centre94 ha reached on 4 Sept5.2 %
-
Vila Chã (São João Baptista e Santiago) 540 inhabitants · 1.8 km from the centre5 ha0.3 %
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 land94 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland3.0 %
- Agricultural areas2.1 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 49 %
- LIC Peneda / Gerês PTCON0001
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.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Inside the perimeter there were about 0.12 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (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
Complex of 3 fires according to ICNF
According to ICNF, 3 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 226 ha (the satellite measured 229 ha).
ICNF records each fire that started at a different time or place separately; the satellite sees a single burned area, so this page groups them together. The numbers on the map show where each one started.
- 1 Ponte da Barca Azias 30 August 2024 · 21:13 6 ha · extinguished on 31 August 2024 · cause: negligence
- 2 Ponte da Barca Azias 4 September 2024 · 01:10 8 ha · extinguished on 4 September 2024 · cause: negligence
- 3 Ponte da Barca Azias (Santa Maria) 4 September 2024 · 11:57 212 ha · extinguished on 5 September 2024 · cause: negligence
Total according to ICNF: 226 ha, 99 % of the 229 ha in the satellite perimeter.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Sept | 23.1 °C | 40 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 5 Sept | 18.2 °C | 46 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 6 Sept after | 14.4 °C | 73 % | 44 km/h | 3.6 mm | Very low 2 |
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 8 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 27 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 6Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 7,225 haPonte da Barca Entre Ambos-os-Rios, Ermida e GermilJuly 2025 · 11 days · 9 km away
- 6,662 haArcos de Valdevez Soajo8 August 2016 · 9 days · 14 km away
- 3,074 haEntrimoSeptember 2016 · 7 days · 22 km away
- 9,224 haCabração e Moreira do LimaAugust 2016 · 5 days · 30 km away
- 3,893 haMonção MerufeOctober 2017 · 2 days · 31 km away
- 3,240 haMuíñosOctober 2017 · 2 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ponte da Barca fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 4 September 2024 and 5 September 2024: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, the largest of the 3 recorded fires was detected on 4 September 2024 at 11:57 and declared extinguished on 5 September 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 229 hectares (2.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Azias (130 ha, 16 %); Valdreu (94 ha, 5.2 %); Vila Chã (São João Baptista e Santiago) (5 ha, 0.3 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Azias and came within 0.7 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 23.1 °C, humidity dropped to 40 % and gusts hit 43 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 ›
- 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.
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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. 6 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 226 official ha against 229 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.
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.