How long did the Reguengo do Fetal fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 16 October 2017 and 16 October 2017: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 124 hectares (1.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Reguengo do Fetal (122 ha, 4.3 %); Alqueidão da Serra (2 ha, 0.1 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire came within 1.3 km of the centre of Alqueidão da Serra, the closest of the areas it touched. 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 22.8 °C, humidity dropped to 47 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 3, class Very low.

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 · 2017-10-16 → 2017-10-16

Reguengo do Fetal fire, October 2017 Reguengo do Fetal, Alqueidão da Serra

Out · last measured on 16 Oct 2017

The fire started on 16 October 2017 in Reguengo do Fetal, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 124 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

Number 187 in Portugal in 2017, of 211.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Porto de Mós · 2020 Porto de Mós · 2020 Leiria · 2022 Ourém · 2022

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area: 124ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 16 Oct 2017 – 16 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit: 2; freguesias
Started on: 16 Oct; 2017
Danger at start: 3; Very low · FWI index
Natura 2000: 100%; of the perimeter is protected land

The weather it burned in

23°high

41km/h · peak gust

47%lowest humidity

It had gone 48 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 16.3 mm on 17 Oct.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Reguengo do Fetal 1,907 inhabitants · 1.4 km from the centre where it started

122 ha

4.3 %
Alqueidão da Serra 1,549 inhabitants · 1.3 km from the centre

2 ha

0.1 %

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

Sclerophyllous scrub27 %
Agricultural areas21 %
Mixed forest20 %
Broadleaved forest17 %
Scrub and transitional woodland16 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

LIC Serras de Aire e Candeeiros PTCON0015

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.

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)
16 Oct	22.8 °C	47 %	41 km/h	12.3 mm	Very low 3
17 Oct after	19.7 °C	50 %	36 km/h	16.3 mm	Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 9 Oct 2017

After · 23 Oct 2017

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 October 2017 the air beside the fire reached 126 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 37: 2.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak126 µg/m³

Days over the guideline4 days

PM10131 µg/m³

WHO 15

141516171819

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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Reguengo do Fetal fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 16 October 2017 and 16 October 2017: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 124 hectares (1.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Reguengo do Fetal (122 ha, 4.3 %); Alqueidão da Serra (2 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire came within 1.3 km of the centre of Alqueidão da Serra, the closest of the areas it touched. 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 22.8 °C, humidity dropped to 47 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 3, class Very low.
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.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
We have not matched this page with any official record.
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