How long did the Sanfins Lamoso Codessos fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 11 August 2016 and 11 August 2016: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 7 August 2016 at 12:35 and declared extinguished on 8 August 2016.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 106 hectares (1.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Sanfins Lamoso Codessos (101 ha, 10.0 %); Roriz (5 ha, 0.8 %); Vila Nova do Campo (1 ha, 0.1 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire started in Sanfins Lamoso Codessos and came within 1.9 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 29.6 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.

PT · Portugal · 2016-08-11 → 2016-08-11

Sanfins Lamoso Codessos fire, August 2016 Sanfins Lamoso Codessos, Roriz, Vila Nova do Campo

Out · last detection 11 Aug 2016, 14:01 UTC

The fire started on 11 August 2016 in Sanfins Lamoso Codessos, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 106 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 7 August 2016 at 12:35 and declared extinguished on 8 August 2016.

Number 170 in Portugal in 2016, of 180.

The power measured by the satellite is low (9.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

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Burnt area: 106ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 11 Aug 2016 – 11 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit: 3; freguesias
Started on: 11 Aug; 2016
Heat detections: 2; in a single hotspot: 10 MW
Danger at start: 45; Very high · FWI index
Average daily power: 20MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Aug11 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

11 Aug 2016 · 20 MW · 2

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

The weather it burned in

30°high

54km/h · peak gust

26%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 17 Aug.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Sanfins Lamoso Codessos 3,139 inhabitants · 1.9 km from the centre where it started

101 ha reached on 11 Aug

10.0 %
Roriz 3,308 inhabitants · 2.1 km from the centre

5 ha

0.8 %
Vila Nova do Campo 6,315 inhabitants · 2.7 km from the centre

1 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

Scrub and transitional woodland80 %
Artificial surfaces20 %

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

Official record

Complex of 2 fires according to ICNF

According to ICNF, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 99 ha (the satellite measured 106 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.

When each one burned

1 67 ha 2 32 ha

7 Aug12 Aug

negligence cause unknown or not published

1 Paços de Ferreira Lamoso 7 August 2016 · 12:35 67 ha · extinguished on 8 August 2016 · cause: negligence
2 Santo Tirso Roriz 11 August 2016 · 17:45 32 ha · extinguished on 12 August 2016 · cause: unknown

Total according to ICNF: 99 ha, 94 % of the 106 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)
11 Aug	29.6 °C	26 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
12 Aug after	31.1 °C	25 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
13 Aug after	29.8 °C	24 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
14 Aug after	26.9 °C	46 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
15 Aug after	25.7 °C	49 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
16 Aug after	22.8 °C	50 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
17 Aug after	22.8 °C	66 %	33 km/h	1.3 mm	Low 9

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 4 Aug 2016

After · 18 Aug 2016

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 13 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 64 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 44: 2.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak64 µg/m³

Days over the guideline6 days

PM1090 µg/m³

WHO 15

91011121314

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 · 2Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Sanfins Lamoso Codessos fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 11 August 2016 and 11 August 2016: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 7 August 2016 at 12:35 and declared extinguished on 8 August 2016.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 106 hectares (1.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Sanfins Lamoso Codessos (101 ha, 10.0 %); Roriz (5 ha, 0.8 %); Vila Nova do Campo (1 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire started in Sanfins Lamoso Codessos and came within 1.9 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 29.6 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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 · 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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How we know this

Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 2 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with ICNF: 99 official ha against 106 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
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