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Resende fire, September 2024 São Martinho de Mouros, Bigorne, Magueija e Pretarouca, Barrô

Out · last detection 19 Sept 2024, 13:41 UTC

The fire started on 17 September 2024 in São Martinho de Mouros, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,783 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 8 municipalities. According to ICNF, the largest of the 3 recorded fires was detected on 16 September 2024 at 20:59 and declared extinguished on 19 September 2024.

It is the 2th largest in Resende since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 14 in Portugal in 2024, of 69.

Burnt area
1,783ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
3days
17 Sept 2024 – 19 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit
8
freguesias
Started on
17 Sept
2024
Heat detections
117
in a single hotspot: 44 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Sept 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Sept19 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

171819

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

24°high
45km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 48 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 21 Sept.

This area had burned before

71% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 752 ha in 2016, 582 ha in 2017, 43 ha in 2019, 1 ha in 2020, 58 ha in 2021, 22 ha in 2022, 9 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,265 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. São Martinho de Mouros 1,333 inhabitants · 0.4 km from the town
    581 ha reached on 17 Sept
    40 %
  2. Bigorne, Magueija e Pretarouca 575 inhabitants · 1.0 km from the town
    359 ha reached on 17 Sept
    18 %
  3. Barrô 595 inhabitants · 1.4 km from the town
    298 ha reached on 18 Sept
    30 %
  4. Paus 421 inhabitants · 0.7 km from the town where it started
    294 ha reached on 17 Sept
    22 %
  5. Avões 502 inhabitants · 0.3 km from the town
    143 ha reached on 19 Sept
    29 %
  6. Penajoia 804 inhabitants · 1.1 km from the town
    84 ha reached on 19 Sept
    8.4 %
  7. Penude 1,406 inhabitants · 2.4 km from the town
    23 ha reached on 17 Sept
    1.8 %
  8. Felgueiras e Feirão 364 inhabitants · 1.8 km from the town
    2 ha reached on 18 Sept
    0.1 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

What burned

  • Other natural land69 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland16 %
  • Agricultural areas9.0 %
  • Mixed forest4.4 %
  • Coniferous forest0.7 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 58 %

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.

Official record

According to ICNF, 3 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 1,714 ha (the satellite measured 1,783 ha).

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)
17 Sept 21.4 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Sept 23.7 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Sept 22.1 °C 40 % 34 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 21
20 Sept after 20.2 °C 45 % 29 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 20
21 Sept after 17.8 °C 55 % 32 km/h 1.2 mm Low 10

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Sept 2024
After · 26 Sept 2024

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 19 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 324 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 180: 12 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak324 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM10341 µg/m³
Optical depth4.89
1516171819202122
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)

Detections table · 117Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Resende fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 17 September 2024 and 19 September 2024: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, the largest of the 3 recorded fires was detected on 16 September 2024 at 20:59 and declared extinguished on 19 September 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,783 hectares (17.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 8 municipalities: São Martinho de Mouros (581 ha, 40 %); Bigorne, Magueija e Pretarouca (359 ha, 18 %); Barrô (298 ha, 30 %); Paus (294 ha, 22 %); Avões (143 ha, 29 %); Penajoia (84 ha, 8.4 %); Penude (23 ha, 1.8 %); Felgueiras e Feirão (2 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.3 km of Avões. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 23.7 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, class Very 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

Satellite cross-check

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
What do you think is wrong?

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.

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.