Ponte de Lima fire, 12 August 2016 Rebordões (Santa Maria), Seara, Facha
The fire started on 12 August 2016 in Seara, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 195 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 12 August 2016 at 20:57 and declared extinguished on 14 August 2016.
It is the 7th largest in Ponte de Lima since 2016 (of 11 with a page). Number 115 in Portugal in 2016, of 181.
The power measured by the satellite is low (20.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 195ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 3days
- 12 Aug 2016 – 14 Aug 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- freguesias
- Started on
- 12 Aug
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 15
- in a single hotspot: 21 MW
- Danger at start
- 33
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 37MW
- 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 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.6 mm on 19 Aug.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Rebordões (Santa Maria) 969 inhabitants · fire reached the centre111 ha reached on 13 Aug16 %
-
60 ha reached on 13 Aug17 %
-
Facha 1,390 inhabitants · 2.7 km from the centre24 ha reached on 13 Aug1.6 %
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 land81 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland19 %
- Agricultural areas0.5 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2015Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, 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.
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 12 August 2016 and burned 188 ha (the satellite measured 195 ha).
- Ponte de Lima Facha 12 August 2016 · 20:57 188 ha · extinguished on 14 August 2016 · cause: negligence
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Aug | 31.3 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 13 Aug | 28.6 °C | 30 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 14 Aug | 26.8 °C | 46 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 15 Aug after | 25.6 °C | 48 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 16 Aug after | 23.1 °C | 48 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 17 Aug after | 22.8 °C | 67 % | 34 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 18 Aug after | 24.4 °C | 40 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 19 Aug after | 21.4 °C | 64 % | 32 km/h | 5.6 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 11 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 71 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 37: 2.5 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 · 15Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 9,224 haCabração e Moreira do LimaAugust 2016 · 5 days · 12 km away
- 2,698 haNogueira, Meixedo e Vilar de MurtedaAugust 2016 · 4 days · 13 km away
- 2,004 haBarcelos Tamel (Santa Leocádia) e Vilar do MonteAugust 2016 · 5 days · 20 km away
- 6,662 haArcos de Valdevez Soajo8 August 2016 · 9 days · 29 km away
- 7,225 haPonte da Barca Entre Ambos-os-Rios, Ermida e GermilJuly 2025 · 11 days · 30 km away
- 3,893 haMonção MerufeOctober 2017 · 2 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ponte de Lima fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 12 August 2016 to 14 August 2016 (3 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 August 2016 to 13 August 2016. According to ICNF, it was detected on 12 August 2016 at 20:57 and declared extinguished on 14 August 2016.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 195 hectares (2.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Rebordões (Santa Maria) (111 ha, 16 %); Seara (60 ha, 17 %); Facha (24 ha, 1.6 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire reached the centre of Rebordões (Santa Maria): 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 31.3 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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.
Report an error
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 12 August 2016 to 13 August 2016. 15 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 188 official ha against 195 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 2015, 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.