Portela e Extremo fire, July 2025 Portela e Extremo, União das Freguesias de Anhões e Luzio, Portela
The fire started on 28 July 2025 in Portela e Extremo, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 123 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 27 July 2025 at 17:08 and declared extinguished on 28 July 2025.
It is the 23th largest in Arcos de Valdevez since 2016 (of 29 with a page). Number 78 in Portugal in 2025, of 85.
The power measured by the satellite is low (5.9 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…
- Burnt area
- 123ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 28 Jul 2025 – 28 Jul 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- freguesias
- Started on
- 28 Jul
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 1
- in a single hotspot: 6 MW
- Danger at start
- 21
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 6MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
28 Jul 2025 · 6 MW · 1
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.
This area had burned before
85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 30 ha in 2018, 83 ha in 2020, 39 ha in 2021, 7 ha in 2022, 34 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 105 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
107 ha reached on 28 Jul9.0 %
-
União das Freguesias de Anhões e Luzio 196 inhabitants · 2.2 km from the centre16 ha1.1 %
-
Portela 202 inhabitants · 2.0 km from the centre0 ha0.0 %
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
- Other natural land60 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland37 %
- Agricultural areas3.2 %
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 0.29 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 2 fires according to ICNF
According to ICNF, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 117 ha (the satellite measured 123 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 Arcos de Valdevez Extremo 27 July 2025 · 17:08 112 ha · extinguished on 28 July 2025 · cause: arson
- 2 Arcos de Valdevez Extremo 28 July 2025 · 00:01 5 ha · extinguished on 28 July 2025 · cause: arson
Total according to ICNF: 117 ha, 95 % of the 123 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Jul | 27.8 °C | 41 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 29 Jul after | 29.0 °C | 40 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 30 Jul after | 29.8 °C | 36 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 31 Jul after | 29.9 °C | 38 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 1 Aug after | 29.0 °C | 42 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 2 Aug after | 30.4 °C | 42 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 3 Aug after | 32.4 °C | 35 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 4 Aug after | 32.1 °C | 35 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 5 Aug after | 33.5 °C | 33 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 6 Aug after | 28.3 °C | 48 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 7 Aug after | 27.4 °C | 50 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
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 30 July 2025 the air beside the fire reached 10 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 · 1Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,893 haMonção MerufeOctober 2017 · 2 days · 7 km away
- 6,662 haArcos de Valdevez Soajo8 August 2016 · 9 days · 15 km away
- 3,333 haAs NevesOctober 2017 · 1 day · 18 km away
- 7,225 haPonte da Barca Entre Ambos-os-Rios, Ermida e GermilJuly 2025 · 11 days · 24 km away
- 9,224 haCabração e Moreira do LimaAugust 2016 · 5 days · 25 km away
- 3,074 haEntrimoSeptember 2016 · 7 days · 25 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Portela e Extremo fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 28 July 2025 and 28 July 2025: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 27 July 2025 at 17:08 and declared extinguished on 28 July 2025.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 123 hectares (1.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Portela e Extremo (107 ha, 9.0 %); União das Freguesias de Anhões e Luzio (16 ha, 1.1 %); Portela (0 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Portela e Extremo and came within 1.2 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 27.8 °C, humidity dropped to 41 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, class Moderate.
- 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. One Suomi-NPP VIIRS detection on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 117 official ha against 123 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.