Ponte de Lima fire, July 2025 Facha, Rebordões (Santa Maria), Seara
The fire started on 29 July 2025 in Facha, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 935 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 6 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 28 July 2025 at 22:47 and declared extinguished on 31 July 2025.
It is the 2th largest in Ponte de Lima since 2016 (of 11 with a page). Number 29 in Portugal in 2025, of 85.
- Burnt area
- 935ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 6days
- 29 Jul 2025 – 3 Aug 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 6
- freguesias
- Started on
- 29 Jul
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 91
- in a single hotspot: 167 MW
- Danger at start
- 25
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 452MW
- 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 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 183 ha in 2016, 267 ha in 2020, 20 ha in 2021, 8 ha in 2022, 79 ha in 2023, 7 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 512 ha that had burned before.
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
-
404 ha reached on 29 Jul26 %
-
Rebordões (Santa Maria) 969 inhabitants · fire reached the centre208 ha reached on 29 Jul29 %
-
Seara 694 inhabitants · 1.0 km from the centre149 ha reached on 29 Jul41 %
-
Navió e Vitorino dos Piães 1,544 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the centre110 ha reached on 29 Jul8.1 %
-
Cabaços e Fojo Lobal 818 inhabitants · 1.8 km from the centre58 ha reached on 29 Jul6.2 %
-
Correlhã 2,787 inhabitants · 0.9 km from the centre7 ha0.9 %
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 land75 %
- Mixed forest15 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland8.4 %
- Agricultural areas1.0 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Official record
According to ICNF, this fire started on 28 July 2025 and burned 931 ha (the satellite measured 935 ha).
- Ponte de Lima Santa Maria Rebordões 28 July 2025 · 22:47 931 ha · extinguished on 31 July 2025 · 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 Jul | 32.8 °C | 28 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 1 Aug | 32.1 °C | 28 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 2 Aug | 31.1 °C | 31 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 3 Aug | 35.3 °C | 24 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 4 Aug after | 33.1 °C | 29 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 5 Aug after | 35.9 °C | 21 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 6 Aug after | 29.0 °C | 40 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 7 Aug after | 28.0 °C | 52 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 8 Aug after | 27.5 °C | 55 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 9 Aug after | 31.1 °C | 39 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 10 Aug after | 30.6 °C | 41 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 11 Aug after | 32.2 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 12 Aug after | 30.1 °C | 32 % | 36 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 31 |
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 2 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 41 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 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 · 91Every 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 · 13 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 · 18 km away
- 6,662 haArcos de Valdevez Soajo8 August 2016 · 9 days · 30 km away
- 7,225 haPonte da Barca Entre Ambos-os-Rios, Ermida e GermilJuly 2025 · 11 days · 31 km away
- 3,893 haMonção MerufeOctober 2017 · 2 days · 38 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 29 July 2025 to 3 August 2025 (6 days). The perimeter dates it from 31 July 2025 to 2 August 2025. According to ICNF, it was detected on 28 July 2025 at 22:47 and declared extinguished on 31 July 2025.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 935 hectares (9.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 6 municipalities: Facha (404 ha, 26 %); Rebordões (Santa Maria) (208 ha, 29 %); Seara (149 ha, 41 %); Navió e Vitorino dos Piães (110 ha, 8.1 %); Cabaços e Fojo Lobal (58 ha, 6.2 %); Correlhã (7 ha, 0.9 %).
- 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 32.8 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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 31 July 2025 to 2 August 2025. 91 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 931 official ha against 935 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- 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.